Heavenly Dragon Emperor
by Drakefire
Summary: Divine Dividing. One of the 13 Longinus, a powerful Scared Gear with only one equal, Boosted Gear. Power to level cities, a power that puts its wielder beyond all mortals. The power to kill a god, in the hands of one who wants nothing to do with it. If James had his way, he would stay out of the chaos of the supernatural world forever. Shame one doesn't always get what they want.
1. Chapter 1

Magic pooled together in the hands of a stone giant, twisting the desert sands at its feet. Small stones were pulled in, forming into a massive arrow, notched into an ever larger bow. A second later, it was released, streaking across the sands like an angry spirit. Soaring over the heads of it's enemies, the payload found it's mark. The spells holding the arrow together broke on impact, expelling the force outward. Stone punctured matted fur, flesh, and bone alike, scattering the rats arming their artillery piece.

One or two more shots, and they would break. Already, the crew had been cut down to around half. Routing them off would be simple, even if they returned, it wasn't like there was much of their Warp Lightning Cannons left. Meanwhile, the catapult nearby fired into the single unit of Stormvermin, tearing into the armored unit without mercy. Already, the Skaven front was already beginning to buckle. Clanrats were ok, mostly due to the cheap price tag, but they couldn't hold up to Tomb Guards.

"This crude simulation is a waste of time," an all too familiar voice rang inside my head. I sighed, hitting the pause button before I got too distracted.

"I heard you the first time, Albion. And the fifty times after that." I groaned, trying to keep myself from speaking aloud. "I've got my homework done, I've already done both my physical and magical training in tonight. I'm pretty sure I'm close to making a breakthrough with that aggression issue," Honestly, I have no idea what his issue is at this point. Until my family moved to Japan, or more specifically, Kuoh, he was perfectly willing to go through the motions of my daily life. Be the best student I could be, keep myself in good shape, and practicing spells, avoiding being detected by the supernatural community.

Yeah, that was kind of important. See, what knowledge I did have came from Albion, and personally, I wanted no part in all that mess. Gods, monsters, angels, devils, any and all of it, I wanted none of it in my life if I could help it. I'd much rather grow old rather living my life than run a high risk of cutting it off early.

"Ddraig is here," Albion spoke, as I resisted the urge to smash my face into the desk before me. Oh, I was more than aware of Albion's rival, the Crimson Dragon Emperor. He had informed me more than once that if the wielder of Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing were to meet, they would fight. Again, something I'd personally care to avoid.

"One, Albion, I have no interest in punching whoever is host to your rival in the face for you, and second, who? I have no interest in ruining any of my wards looking for this guy anyway. You know that I don't want to get involved in this."

"Understandable, but it is fate. Ddraig has yet to awaken, which give you an upper hand."

"What do you mean, has yet to awaken? Don't you want a fair fight? And besides, anyone with a Scared Gear would have already awakened at this age," ok, maybe that wasn't entirely true, seeing as I only had a sample size of my sister and myself. I could almost feel Albion's pride take a hit from my remark.

"I know not their identity, only that they are present," Albion's displeasure was easily felt, either due to my reluctance or his inability to find his rival. "His presence is faint. I nearly mistook what I was sensing to be that boy in the Student Council at first."

Wow, Ddraig must have been buried deep if even his rival couldn't find him. Still, a dragon type Scared Gear was nothing to scoff at. So long as it couldn't sniff me out, things were perfectly fine. Seeing as no alarm had yet been raised about me had been raised yet, it was safe to assume I was in the clear.

Albion seemed to withdraw for the time being, and I hunkered back down into my seat. Now, where was I? Oh, right, I was just about to win this engagement, likely crippling the Skaven force that had been advancing towards my cities. This army was the largest they had, and stopping them would be a decisive blow in my favor.

I was just about to unpause the game when a rune formed next to my head, flashing bright red. My eyes widened, gazing at the floating mandal in shock. That was not good news, not good news at all.

"Mom, whatever you do, don't open the front door!"

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The fallen angel was in no certain means sutile. Abducting someone from their home in the middle of the night in the guise of 'helping' them was a blatant lie. I had only one reason to go along with it. There was no way I was starting a fight with a fallen angel of unknown strength so close to a residential area, let alone my own family. The supernatural world needed to remain hidden.

This would make for a weird news story. I could already see headlines now. "High School Boy beats up Blonde Middle Schooler". For all my wanting to avoid this, I suppose it was inevitable. Power attracts trouble, and there few things mightier than a dragon. Yeah, I wanted nothing more than to never get involved with the supernatural, but that didn't mean I hadn't bothered being prepared. Hope for the best and prepare for worst, all that good stuff.

"I think this is good enough," I stated, taking note of my surroundings. Honestly, the park was the best place to have a fight like this. Replacing dirt and trees was nowhere near as difficult as putting down new pavement, and no one was going to here at this time of night.

"What are you talking about?" my sudden bout of defiance seemed to have taken her by surprise. I paid her no mind, my eyes flickering behind me. That tree was about two meters behind me, and the fallen was behind me by a half meter, her pink spear in hand.

Divine Dividing was easily, in my opinion, one of the strongest Scared Gears. Simply being able to divide the strength of anyone, every ten seconds, and add to it's wielders power was something to good to ignore, even without Balance Breaker. Anything more than I could handle would be expelled through the wings, simply allowing me to drain more and more power, even if I couldn't normally take it.

Half Dimension took this a step further, allowing me to divide the size anything within a radius, organic or inorganic. And yeah, these were all great abilities, and time spend developing them was well spent, but there had to be more. For one who could divide anything, what I had seemed limited. So, I did what I do best. Experiment with things that should be better left alone. I learned two things that day. The first was that trips to the ER were expensive. Second was that one could divide their place in space, so long as there was a reference point to divide from. Like, say, the tree just behind the person who's pointing a spear at your back?

"Divide," I intoned, and one second later, I was directly behind the fallen angel. My fist connected with the back of her skull, sending her tumbling forward, landing in a heap. Mandal's had already begun to form in my hand, building up magic swiftly. Despite the blow that destroyed her pigtails and hair ribbon, she had recovered faster than I would have cared for.

A pink spear flew from her right, an underhand throw as her black wings unfolded from her back, allowing her to take to skys. An impressive manvor, without a doubt, but a futal one. Lightning arced forth from the mandal in my hand, smashing it's way through the spear like it was made of paper, connecting with the ground the fallen had been only moments beforehand.

The second remained in my right hand, having just finished charging. Unlike the lightning bolt, this spell was something I forged myself. A snap of my fingers, and lightning roared to life, crackling over my hand like a wave. Brilliant blue, it held its shape, that of a massive javelin. A spell made to break the scales of a dragon. Several degrees overkill, yes, but it wasn't wasn't the strongest spell I'd whipped up.

"So the weakling has some fight in him after all!" it was a taunt, and a clear one. An attempt to insult my pride and strength.

"If I'm the weak one, why are you staying up there?" I returned, wanting to activate Divine Dividing and take to the skys. But that was a terrible idea. As much as I liked to fly, those wings had been on her back the moment she was born, or whatever was done to make new angels. I had no hope of matching that type of experience, and even if I could, flying was going to draw too much attention.

She didn't take the bait. So at the very least, I was concerning enough to make sure she remained in place. And I wasn't moving, no matter how much taunting or jeering came my way.

"So, we're at a stalemate, then," I couldn't tell whether this was a good or a bad thing. Sure, the lightning spear wouldn't last forever, but I'd already used a much fast spell to destroy her own spears. Even if it faded, I could protect myself. But that was for now. Sure, I did a good enough job of keeping myself hidden from the world, so she thought she could handle this alone. But now it was clear I was more stronger than she had anticipated.

I quickly ran through my options. Balance Breaker was there if I really needed it, but such an action would paint this town on the supernatural map more than it already was. Simply fighting it out was possible, but too risky.

"Or you could use that spell," Albion's voice entered my mind, and I didn't need more than a second to figure out what he was talking about. My sister called it overkill, uncessicary, and impractical.

She was correct on all counts. It took too long to cast, ate too far into my magical reserves, and was a calling card that simply screamed 'Powerful Mage Here!'. Then there was the largest downside of all, being caught in the blast myself. If I were to ever consider that spell in combat, I would need to iron out that bug first.

"Absolutely not!" I returned. "Too many reasons not to, and all of them are good. I'd much rather not fry myself if I can help it."

"It would deal with her, even from here," Albion responded. He wasn't wrong by any means.

"And everything else in the park. I'm not desperate enough to electrocute myself, at any rate."

"Are you done talking to your imaginary friend down there?" My brow furrowed in frustration. I was still working on fixing that bad habit. Talking to myself was something I just simply did from time to time, but Albion's telepathy made it so I actually could be talking to someone. It was a childish insult, but it still touched a nerve.

"I know you look like a child, but isn't acting like one a bit much," I shouted back, doing my best to hide my smirk.

It seemed to do the trick, too. I didn't hear what she said, or if she had said anything at all, but the pink spear was descending from above. I threw mine upwards, arcing from my hand like an actual bolt of lightning. It didn't stop, it didn't slow, not even as it barreled through the spear of light. Lightning screamed into the night sky, thunder let loose it's wrath, and the fallen was no more.

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"I told you he would win," the girl seemed smug, looking at her parents as they shook their heads. At least this served an actual purpose, and could actually be explained naturally. Lightning could strike, without a storm. It just happened to be extremely rare, that's all.

The three watched in silence as the thunder died, waiting for the fourth to return home.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"It seems like Mittelt lost. What a pity."

"If she lost to someone who hadn't even awakened their Scared Gear, then she didn't deserve to be hear in the first place."

"He said divide. Unlike the one Raynare killed, his Sacred Gear is active. Divine Dividing, from the sound of it."

"Azazel said that both of them could be a danger if their Scared Gear's awakened. You mean to tell me that it's been active this whole time, and Azazel didn't even know? That shouldn't be possible."

"It is possible. All those wards make it seem like he's normal, but he's aware. He might just want to be left alone."

"That was not a display of someone wanting to be left alone. That was a show of force."

"You are both correct. It is a message. 'Cross me again, and you will suffer the same'."

"What is our next move then, Raynare?"

"He's proven that he isn't a danger, as per Azazel's orders. Leave him be. If he wishes to be left alone, he shall. But if he comes after us, kill him."

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To think the Fallen Angels would have been bold enough to strike at two in the same day. Issei was expected, though there was little that could actually be done about the matter. His reincarnation was successful, a small blessing given what had happened.

Baker James was a second year Transfer student from America to Kuoh Academy. He wasn't the most impressive student, with only above average grades for the most part, with Math, English, and Science being the exceptions, while Japaneses was below average. His younger sister also attended the academy, one Baker Lily, if Rias remembered correctly. Much better all around than her older sibling academically, except in the areas where her brother expelled, she was nearly at the top of her class. She was also a member of the archery club, unlike her sibling, who participated in none.

Their father worked under hers, indirectly, of course, and their mother worked at a local hospital. And none of them were magical. Or, that's what she had thought. What her familiar had shown her was forcing Rias to change that assumption. James was a magician, a strong enough one to fight a Fallen Angel and win. But there was more to it than that. He was talking to something. A familiar was a possibility, but that didn't seem likely.

There was no reason for a Fallen Angel to accost a magician away in the middle of the night, but a Scared Gear user? They'd already attacked Issie, who she was certain had Boosted Gear. Did that mean another Longinus user had been hiding under their noses?

She would need to inform Sona of this development. Rias redirected one of her familiars to keep an eye on matters. While it was unlikely anyone would make a move after a display like that, it didn't hurt to be prepared.

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Kuoh Academy was an interesting place, a small little hive of perversion. Well, not in the traditional sense, most of the time. Sure, the Perverted Trio were always a right pain in the ass for everyone, most of the male population was under the sway of good old fashion hormones. Seeing Kuoh used to be an all female school, and it didn't take a genus why so many guys wanted to be here.

Still, the gender disparity remained a bit wide, which is why I was able to transfer into the school so easily. My sister had less of an issue, better grades and all. A model student from America, what could possibly go wrong? Actually, surprisingly little. Something I was thankful for. Ok, I may have had more to do with it then I was willing to let my sister know about, but there were good reasons for that.

Still, the day had gone by smoothly enough, despite my sleepness. Last night had left me a bit shaken, and more than a few degrees paranoid. Even a gust of went was enough to send me into high alert. It was safe to say I was an utter wreck, and it showed. Still, I was better off than Issie.

The brown haired pervert looked like he was even worse shape than I was. He was sluggish, with circles under his eyes like he didn't get any sleep. I didn't have much care for him or his two friends, personally, and most of the school didn't either. But him being this far from his usual antics was a different type of concerning. And then there was English class, where things got several levels of just plain weird.

He spoke perfect english, as if he had spoken it sense the day he was born! Nobody found it suspicious, either. The thing was, I wasn't even sure he had noticed what he did in the first place. Somehow, Issie had learned to speak perfect english. Out of all the species of supernatural creatures I knew of, only one had a power like that. Devils. It made sense. His sudden perfect understanding of english, too the fact he seemed sluggish under the sun's rays.

But two big problems came from that line of though. First was that I was fairly certain a few devils were at this school already, and I didn't notice their langue power nor did they react this venhimically to sunlight. Then there was the simple fact humans just didn't turn into devils. Devils were devils, humans were humans, and that was that.

More honestly, I personally thought that his lack of sleep was because that girl who came out of nowhere and attached himself to his hip finally realized how much of prev he was, and left him. Well, until I learned that everyone besides Issie had no memory of the girl. Well, I had yet to ask my sister, with us being in different years, but she should also remember.

There was no understating the problem something like that possed. Why would I remember, and why would he, but everyone else forget? Magic was at play here, some pretty powerful magic at that. And I couldn't imagine it being benign, or even petty. Erasing memories pertaining to a single person, only leaving Issie to remember under normal circumstances. For a school this large, that would be no small task.

No, something was a work here. But what? It didn't take much to see Issie was about as mundane as mundane got, even with his perversion and talk of harems. Personally, I wasn't going to approach him on the matter unless pushed. Mostly because I could simply be reading too far into the situation as things stood, and if I was, then I could be putting him in danger.

Did I like Issie? Not in the slightest. But did I want him dead? No. And if I was wrong, trying to introduce him to the supernatural, that's what I'd end up with. Once the veil was lifted, it couldn't be closed. And I would not be responsible for introducing someone who had no magical abilities, and no Scared Gear to that type of life.

Honestly, I was too tired to be even considering that as an option in the first place. I needed to know more, but a day to collect my thoughts wouldn't exactly kill me. And I should actually start eating, before I start looking like the weird American student. Well, I was the weird American student, but that's besides the point.

I just hopped today didn't have any further interference from the supernatural. I'd had enough for a week.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It wasn't meant to be. True, the rest of the day was pretty much mundane, but that changed not horribly long after class let out. I would have already walked home by then, but both my sister and I agreed that it would be best if we stuck together.

That was until Saji showed up, telling me a certain Student Council President wished to speak with me. Oh, if that didn't set off warning bells. Unless she was going to talk about the bags under my eyes, which maybe, maybe I could play this off as a bad night of sleep.

Sona was stern, with no patience for troublemakers. And she took her job extremely seriously. There was a reason I had been surprised that Prevert Trio were even here, rather than expelled. Even more of one that I tried to avoid her when I could. I honestly suspected the girl wasn't human, as good as she was at her job. Something just, rubbed me the wrong way entirely. The same could be said for most of the student council, but Sona was easily the one who unnerved me the most.

Then there was my sister's, 'it's important, and you should go,' text pretty much a few seconds after he left. Her scared gear, no doubt, and that's what concerned me. In its most basic state, it allowed her to see three seconds into the future. Once a day, she could peer further into the future, usually only an hour or two in advance. Even then, she could only get so much, and some was left to interpretation.

But, it wasn't like I didn't have a choice. I'd just have to find a way to roll with the punches.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"You wished to speak with me Kiachou?" I barely got the final word out of my mouth, but thankfully, I didn't butcher it. Like the five other times I'd tried. She slightly nodded, or at the very least tipped her head, probably because I didn't massacre her title again.

"I'll get straight to the point," her voice was stern, akin to parent about to scold their child. A tone I was more than familiar with. "How much do you know about devils?"

It wasn't the question I was expecting, but my body froze all the same. One way or another, I'd have to tip my hand. This wouldn't be a question asked lightly. They would need a reason to suspect.

"Albion, I'm about to do something reckless."

"I would advise against engaging in combat. However, if you seek to tip your hand, try to avoid tipping all of it."

"Like with everything else most modern people consider myth, a very real thing. Along with both type of angels," my face was straight, and my tone was serous. Fallen was ruled out by default. Unless what happened last night was someone going against orders, then they would have already made an attack. And angels wouldn't be playing school house. Heaven had to be much too busy to allow that.

That left devils. The entire student council was made up of devils. If there was a joke to be had here, I wasn't finding it funny.

"Much less than I expect then," I frowned, still unable to read Sona's expression. I knew Albion's information was dated, but how far off could he be? It took him and Driagg fighting to cause a temporary ceasefire. And that was only long enough to lead to the creation of Divine Dividing and Boosting Gear.

"Though despite that, you think we are devils."

Note to self. Never play a game that requires a poker face with her. She read me like a freaking book. She wasn't denying it either. Out of all the times I've hated being wrong, this was swiftly taking the cake.

"Process of elimination," I shrugged, trying to play myself off as less concerned than I was, and likely failing horribly. "Angel's wouldn't have time for something like this, and Fallen would have already attack me."

It was only after I finished speaking that I realized I may have played a bit too much of my hand. My concern only grew when Sona had not showing of surprise by this revelation. I was fairly certain I covered my tracks and everything!

"So a Fallen Angel did attack you last night," it was a statement, not a question that needed to be confirmed. "And you were not the only one. Issei Hyoudou was as well."

The world came to a grinding halt.

"What?" I squeaked out, switching back to english on pure instinct. Him, of all people! Forget why they would target him, how the hell was he still alive! I shook my head, trying to focus myself before my mind went too far off the rails.

"It was that girl who attached herself to him, wasn't it," I asked once I finally focused myself. Sona nodded, causing me to frown. I wasn't going to like asking this question, but I need to know.

"How is he still alive?" Immediately, the room chilled several degrees, and Sona had a slight visible frown. A pawn piece came from her pocket, a blue colored crystal. Fancy, but I failed to see the point she trying to make.

"This is an evil piece. It allows High Class Devils to reincarnate humans and other species into devils, including those who recently died," my throat felt like it dropped into my stomach. Oh dear god, Issei had died. Died, and been reborn.

I felt sick to my stomach. The only thing stopping me from storming out in disgust was the lingering look of regret on Sona's face. Would Issei believe anyone if we told him his new girlfriend was out to kill him? This is what the boy had dreamed for, and he wouldn't believe it, without her buttering him up.

"He was reincarnated into Rias Gremory's peerage," Sona continued to act as if she were reading my mind. I knew off the red head, of course, most of the male population was infatuated with her, but to think she was also a devil. Kouh was even more of a hotbed for the supernatural, wasn't it.

"She suspects he has Boosted Gear as well, which explains the attack."

Once again, my mind went blank.

I didn't even get out a 'what', just a brain dead 'uh'. That made so much sense, but at the same time, it made no sense. Meanwhile, Albion seemed to be howling with laughter, as much as a dragon could. If it wasn't for the fact he didn't have a physical body, there'd be a raging earthquake. I kept hearing 'weakest' and 'most pitiful', and even 'so easy to punch in the face'.

"No, Albion, I'm not punching Issei in the face for you," I slumped over, completely and utterly drained. You know what, I was done. Today, you and I are completely through. Until I felt stares coming from all over the room.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" I only needed to glance around the room to see the nodding heads.

Ok, now today and I were officially through.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm sorry! If I had known!" my sister was on the verge of tears. I had thrown up a vail the moment she was out of archery practice, so we could talk in peace. It wasn't good but was enough to prevent most from hearing what we are talking about, though anyone with even more than a touch of magic would be able to see through it.

"If you had known, it wouldn't have changed much. I would have had to go anyway because if I didn't, it would cause them to be suspicious," I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "And Sona is smart. She probably expected some type of Sacred Gear, and my reaction to Issei's suspected own likely just gave everything away anyway." Really, at this point, I was trying to calm her down. As far as she was concerned, she had just sent me into a trap with open arms.

But I didn't blame her. Nobody sane would. She didn't know the Student Council is comprised of devils, and even if she did, what good would it have done? Nothing, that's what! The only reason the gig was up was that of one fallen angel, and why would she look for something like that! We'd been off the radar all our lives, and there was no reason to expect any change. Even if there was, her Scared Gear didn't allow her to see far into the future in the first place, even when fully activated.

"Still," she rubbed her green eyes, "those pieces. You could have been turned into a devil."

"Trying to turn someone by force is the last way to earn any loyalty, and even then, I don't think she has enough pieces remaining to bind me," I looked down, meeting her eyes, keeping my voice calm. Immediately after and while waiting for Lily's practice to finish, I wracked my sleep addled brain for anything I could remember about chess.

Not much, honestly, beyond things like knight movement, pawn promotion, and castling had pretty much fallen away, seeing as the last time I had played, I had been quite young. But I also recalled the point system, though I couldn't remember everything about it. Still, each piece was worth something, and I doubted chess pieces were chosen just simply because they looked cool.

Either the entire Student Council was reincarnated under her, or at the very least most of them, and she had shown me one pawn. So at least, she had one pawn left. Honestly, there were more pieces left based on how many were in the student council. Other combinations included eight to six pawns, provided Saji was worth one, which was doubtful, and any combination of knights, rooks, and bishops. The queen piece was taken by Tsubaki, Sona's second and Vice President.

"She didn't bother asking, which is part of the reason why I think that in the first place," honestly, that was my biggest. Devil's are beings of desire. Even with me very, very clearly saying I would reject, she would have asked if it was within her power. Or Sona just had good self-control. Rias was likely in the same boat if her theory about Issei was true.

Thankfully, my words had their intended effect. She calmed down, no longer wiping the tears from her eyes. Then, the pout came.

"I suppose I shouldn't try getting close to Gremory-sama, Himejima-sama, and Kiba-sama anymore," oh god, that pout. Even normally, it was a terrifying thing. More so than her idolizing of the two great ladies, as they were called.

I sighed, relenting under the pressure. They knew I had a Sacred Gear, but they didn't know about hers. So long as they remained unaware, I didn't see an issue with her trying to get closer to any of her three crushes. But I doubted any of them were interested. Kiba could have easily acquired the harem that Issei coveted, while Rias and Akeno showed no interest in anyone, despite their many admirers, some of which were in my sister's boat.

I felt bad for her. She going to be shot down. Three times, by three different people. She was going to get hurt, and for once, there was nothing I could do. Yeah, that sucked, but love could bite people in the ass like that.

"If we hurry, we can get home before mom gets up," she giggled, clearly happy that I agreed. Not like I could stop her trying to get close to them anyway. At least I'd be aware of how far into trouble she was getting, instead of her doing it behind everyone's back.

"Still asleep? I'll race you," I grinned, watching her face light up at the offer. She took off like a rocket, blowing past my vail in a whirlwind of speed. I chuckled, taking off after her, happy that she was enjoying herself.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I managed to win, if only barely, despite my sister's cheating. Seeing three seconds into the future made certain things pretty easy. There was a reason you never took a bet with her, especially if that bet was spur the moment. There was an even greater one why we never let her attempt to gamble with anything. With enough training, she would be a poker Goddess with just her Scared Gear alone.

It was our footfalls up the front steps were what caused our mother to finally stir from her slumber. Her alarm clock had failed to wake her up, only leaving an hour to prepare herself for the night shift at Kouh's children's hospital.

Mercifully, there was pancake batter in the fridge, allowing me to quickly fix up dinner. Mom already had enough things to do without worry about putting food in our mouths. She was out the door before dad came home, but only by a few minutes. My news would have to wait until tomorrow when everyone would be able to just sit down. I didn't want to repeat myself, especially with everything going on.

Yeah, that was a conversation I was going to enjoy having. Hey dad, your boss is possibly a devil. Yes, I do mean literally, like one from the bible. He was going to freak out over this whole situation. Of course, I was at that point internally. Longinus class Scared Gears weren't something a person would just leave around. Each of the three factions coveted such powerful Scared Gears, each in different ways, one of which I found out only today.

But two of the three were aware of me wielding Divine Dividing, and if that was the case, there could be more. The Fallen had tried to kill me, burning that bridge. I hoped the devils would just let me be and live my life in peace, but that wasn't going to happen. Longinus were weapons, powerful ones. Nobody would be crazy enough to leave me alone after such information comes to light. Even without any training, one could easily be a powerful asset.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That was what I lived by and intended to do so. And the worst had all but happened now. I had the eyes of the supernatural community on me now. This was, ironically, what I'd trained for. If the supernatural looked my way, if they became aware of Divine Dividing, I'd have something more than just potential. I didn't go overboard, but I experimented with magic fairly regularly, and I certainly could do well in a few of the physically active clubs. I could defend myself until I found a group that could help keep my family safe, and ward off whatever enemies I've made during that time.

Meanwhile, the very same faction that was interested in me also had my supposed rival. History was riff with clashes between the two, each pretty much being brutal, potentially city-destroying affairs.

So much fun. Not! This type of complexity was what I wanted to avoid! I wanted to study dinosaurs, not get involved in this crazy life!

I took a deep breath, calming myself down. Freaking out wasn't going to help, and it wasn't going to change anything.

"Do you want me to use a fortune?"

"Eh?" I questioned, apparently not noticing that my sister was still in the room. It took a few seconds for her question to click in my mind.

I frowned. Her making such an offer was never a good thing, seeing how much she hated using it. While my parents were no closer to tracking down exactly what her Sacred Gear was, it had one major ability. Once a day, she could enter a state that she could answer a single question. This question would have to be about the future, and she never remembered the answer given. And it only saw a single hour into the future.

There were a few other downsides. Lightheadedness that she usually needed to sleep off, general headaches and once a nosebleed, but that was one time only, and the answer she gave was really cryptic. Sounded like something straight out of a fantasy game.

"Why?" This was the first time she'd offered up one for free in quite a while. It couldn't be on a whim, and I hoped she didn't have any feelings of guilt about the attack. How much could have been done, even with an hour's notice? Sure, we could have been prepared, but that wouldn't have changed the outcome.

"You said Issei had been attacked, right?" I nodded. I had told her about that, and Rias's suspicion that he held Boosted Gear. "What's stopping them from attacking him again? He's not as strong as you are, and he doesn't know yet."

"He's apart of Rias's peerage now. I'd imagine that would give him some form of protection," I offered, already guessing where things were going. That was a question I had wondered about myself. I'd think becoming a devil and a member of a peerage would kind of mark him somehow. Like attacking him would be an attack on devil kind, something along those lines. Sona did say there was an informal truce in effect, so Issei should be safe.

Sona did say she'd talk about what could be done about me though, further reinforcing my idea that they didn't have the pieces to turn me.

"But Issei doesn't know that yet. He could get hurt or killed again. I don't want that." Tears had begun to cling to her eyes again. I pulled Lily into a hug, smiling gently. Such a heart of gold she had. I patted her head, fingers touching her brown hair, calming her down.

"I can do something that might save him. So, I have to at least try, right? Even if he is a pervert." she smiled up at me, rubbing the last of the tears from her face, and I couldn't help but beam back.

I nodded, allowing her to collect herself. Soon, her body slumped over, eyes going white as if she had become blind. Her head moved as if controlled by another, slow and robotic.

"What is the question that you desire to have answered?" its voice rasped, like something that had been left without water for too long in the desert.

"Will the one known as Issei Hyoudou be attacked by any fallen angels?" I questioned, making sure my wording was precisely what I wanted it to be. Just like I'd imagine asking oracles to be like, wording needed to exact. Otherwise, you didn't get the answer you needed. Like if I said a, instead of any. A would imply one, so the answer could be no, but he could be attacked by more than one fallen angel.

"The prison of the Red Dragon Emperor will not be attacked by those of fallen light," the voice rasped.

"So, he is the one," I could feel Albion's ill contained glee. Well, at least he wasn't going to be attacked in the next hour. And Rias's theory was confirmed too, but I wasn't going to explain how I knew that to her. I took a quick look at the clock

"Still not fighting him for you," I commented, just to reinforce where I stood on the matter. He merely chuckled at that, though I had little time to worry about it. My sister shook her head, hair nearly smacking me in the face.

"He's good," I didn't even need to wait for her to ask. A sigh of relief left her mouth as she shook her head again.

"Water," her voice was dry and crackly, as I quickly filled her one of the reusable bottles from the water pitcher in the fridge. Everything put into the bottle vanished in a matter of seconds, Lily being completely unrestrained in her rush. A pleased sound exited her throat, and I relaxed.

"Feeling better?" even I couldn't hide my concern for my younger sister.

"Yeah, I'm good," she responded, finally releasing her hair from its ponytail, her frame losing its tension. "I'm more worried about you right now though. Did you get any sleep at all last night?"

Her eyes bore into mine. The bags under my eyes made it obvious enough, so lying would be useless. My hair had likely lost whatever effect taking a comb to it in the morning had, so I didn't need to look in a mirror to tell I probably looked quite haggard.

"No, I didn't," I sighed, looking down. "I'm going to hit the hay early tonight, so please don't give me that look." I heard her feet shift, telling me yes, she was trying to give me one of those looks.

"You don't have to worry about this alone you know," she frowned somewhat. "You did make that bow for me after all." I nodded, remembering the spell I had made for her as her birthday gift last year. I had originally planned to base it off a spell in Skyrim, the conjured bow. Nothing I did could actually make it work though. Sure, the bow could be summoned, but it would slip through one's fingers the moment the spell was released.

Ultimately, I was forced to apply the same principles behind my lightning spear, effectively making a lightning bow and arrows. She adored it, and it proved to simpler than enchanting a bow, an art I still had trouble with. While it didn't have as much power, it was more than enough to punch holes through boulders. Accuracy was really the major upside, though most of that was my sister's own training.

"I know. I just don't want you to get hurt," I said. If she got hurt, especially if it was something that I could have prevented, I had no idea what I'd do.

"I know. I don't want you to get hurt either," the same words echoed back to me. I shook my head. My own argument used against me. It was only natural, I suppose. I wanted them to stay safe, but they also wanted me to be safe.

I pulled her into a hug, a silent I love you. She returned the gesture whole heartily, applying enough force to my spine for me to feel a light pop.

"I love you too, Oni-chan," I nearly recoiled away out of surprise. When she said it like that, it sounded creepy. Brother was perfectly fine, thank you very much.

"Please don't call me that," I declared, as she howled with laughter at my reaction. My head shook at her antics. I suppose it was time to change the subject. Or at least, start finishing up my homework.

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Over the next few days, my life felt like it regained some sense of normalcy. Even my working negotiations with the two devils practically had an air of mundane about it. Ok, calling them negotiations was overselling things. Most of their time was spent simply filling in the blanks in my knowledge before they were actually willing to talk out the terms of our arrangement.

It was nice of Rias and Sona to do that. While I had no doubt the information was biased, I was getting more knowledge about the supernatural than I ever had before. The gesture of allowing me to make a somewhat informed decision was appreciated, and points in their favor. Ironically, making a deal with two devil's didn't seem like a terrible idea.

For starters, it wasn't going to cost my soul. If anything, it was closer to a business agreement. I scratched their backs by helping them out with minor things, not exactly devil contracts in the like, but more akin to training Issei, if nothing else. Or tracking down stray devil's if they felt it wouldn't be extremely risky to my life.

They said they'd explain what a stray devil was in due time. Personally, I didn't like the sound of that, but they shared honesty with me thus far. Plus, training Issei was something I could do, once Rias finally got around to telling him that he was a devil. I really couldn't understand why she hadn't already told him. Issei was getting more sluggish and melancholy by the day.

Well, it wasn't melancholy too, oh, the more than a dozen or so people who actually knew, but it was still painful to watch. Even his perverted friends had noticed Issei's lack of everything. I wasn't entirely sure why the school let them bring porn into the building and show it around in front of him, but at least they were trying to cheer him up. It seemed to work for a time.

Then he brought up his girlfriend that nobody remembered. Yuuma was the name she operated under when trying to kill Issei. While it didn't matter, seeing it was as if she never existed anyway, but knowledge was power. A direct attack on my own life failed, so the next attempt one might try a more subtle approach.

Still, my sister remained willing to monitor his activities through her Sacred Gear. Thus far, everything had been quiet. Maybe they thought they'd succeeded in whatever mission they had and vacate the area before either peerage caught them. Sure, I might have been paranoid at that point, but I wasn't leaving things to chance. I'd thrown up a few more wards on the house, with Lily providing a few spells of her own.

It was a bit much, but there was no kill like overkill. Well, maybe there was, but I hadn't reached that point yet.

"So, in exchange for keeping your family safe, you will aid us in eliminating stray devils and other missions that might require a Longinus," Sona stated, looking over the terms of our contract. "Such an arrangement seems to be in our favor. Heavily so."

"Well, outside of protection for my family, I don't really want much," I resisted the urge to shrug off her comment. "Plus helping Issei improve with his Boosted Gear will help me get stronger too."

"Impressive. Improving the strength of your enemy as a means to challenge yourself." Albion's voice rang in my mind. "A risky but potentially fruitful maneuver."

"Like it or not, I'm involved now," I shot back internally, trying to keep my face straight. "Getting stronger by default kind of needs to be upped a few notches on the priority list."

"This comes from the one who once was content spending five years developing balance breaker," Albion teased, though mercifully remained silent after that. I wasn't going to be able to focus on two different conversations at once, even if one was internal.

"Regardless, I'm surprised you didn't ask for access to any magic tomes. Normally a magician would make such a request," Sona looked at me dead in the eye as if she was trying to read my mind.

"I usually make my own spells with what little I've had available to me. I really don't see any need to change that," I kept her gaze, unable to ignore the strange glint in her eye. Even Rias's eyes seemed to widen slightly in surprise. Meanwhile, Sona's eyes narrowed, the look she gave me nearly made me want to run away in fear. I thought I heard her mutter 'I see', but I chalked it up to my imagination.

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The talk went better than even I expected. Everything had been sorted out, and somehow, I ended up with a small beginners spellbook. As Sona so nicely put it, a gift for one advanced in one particular type of spell, but horribly behind everywhere else.

At the very least, it would something I could go over and actually begin practicing within short order. My exposure to magic was admittedly, extremely limited to what my parents could dig up. What I did get was few and far between. Lightning based elemental spells were mostly what I got, but I couldn't complain.

They had also exchanged numbers with me. That way, I could contact them if I ran into trouble, or contact me for missions and the like. Normally, they had the ability to observe any piece in their peerage, but seeing how I wasn't going to be, phones were the best workaround.

I let out a yawn as I stepped through the front door. Only two days till the weekend, and then maybe I could enjoy this book after work and homework were out of the way. Taking it down to my little lab and just practicing would certainly be quite fun.

"Are we going to try again?" Well, it looked like someone had no patience today. She was beginning to get more irritable ever since we started using her Scared Gear more and more. I had held on to some type of hope that this would help her build up an immunity of sorts, allowing it to become stronger after so many years of neglect.

I was wishing on a star, it seemed. Still, hopefully, Rias would inform Issei soon, and this would come to an end. This was causing her no small amount of discomfort, but she was willing to continue anyway. Honestly, she was being stubborn at this point, her actually wanting to help aside.

"Ok," I nodded, as she positioned herself cross-legged on the couch. A meditative stance straight out of our martial arts days.

"If Issei Hyoudou is attacked by any fallen angels, when and where would it be?" I'd improved the question a bit over the past few days. One could never be too specific when dealing with future questions and all that.

"The prison of the Red Dragon Emperor will be stuck at the place of his first death when the sun has given way to the moon."

Yeah, that was the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear. In every way imaginable. My eyes flickered toward the window. It was sunset. So there was some time between now and the hour her prediction had to come true.

"Problem?" she rasped, concern growing on her face as she observed my panic.

"Understatement of the century," my frown only continued to grow on my face. "Issei will be attacked after the sun has fully set, and an exact location was given. Problem is, I have no idea where it is, and it isn't a place I can look up on google."

Yeah, the place Issei had died the first time was pretty specific, but at the same time, neither of us knew where. Asking Rias was out of the question. There was no way I could be subtle enough to pull that one past her. Not without revealing her Scared Gear could I likely gain access to such knowledge.

I tried to turn my mind back. Issei had been unable to keep his mouth shut during the entire time frame. He likely dropped a hint at some point or another. I frowned. The park. It made for a romantic enough place, for sure, and one could hide a body in the woods with magic on their side.

"Park," I stated, already making my way towards the door. I had plenty of ground to cover, but I had a starting point.

"Give them hell," I watched my sister smile at me. Oh, how appropriate that statement was.

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Dark had long since fallen, and yet I found no sign of Issei or any fallen angels lying in wait. I hadn't run out of time, not yet, but I was getting close. Had something already happened, and I was too late to stop it? My ears pricked. Voices. I turned the corner.

Issei was looking up, towards the black winged angel that hung over him like a specter of death. Light had already begun to form in his hands. Time had just run out.

But the fallen angel was taking his time, toying with his prey like a cat did a mouse. As he was about to throw his spear, he pushed upward with his wings, lightning arcing were his right arm been only moments before.

"Stay behind me," I snapped, positioning myself between the fallen angel and Issei. The black haired angel did not seem to be amused by my presence if his scowl was anything to go by.

"Slayer of Mittelt, I suggest," I didn't let him finish, cutting him off with another bolt of lightning, this time casually aimed towards his face, though it was partially an attempt to cover my own confusion. Mittelt was probably the one who tried to kill me, but I was fairly certain I hadn't killed her. Driven her off out of fear was my intention.

"Back off," I snarled, two matching sets of mandal's appearing in my hands. "Or else your head will be joining hers on my mantel." If he thought I had killed her, then I might as well play to it.

"What makes you think you could accomplish such a task?" he asked, glaring down at us. His eyes were on my spells, and mine was on his spear.

"How much stronger are you, really? I mean, she was pretty easy to deal with. Didn't even need to use Balance Breaker, and she had the element of surprise," that got his attention. His glare became a scowl.

"So, here's what's going to happen. You're going to stand down, and leave. You will not try to follow him home. And if you don't, you'll be dealing with me, and his master," I threatened, narrowing my eyes. "And yes, I know exactly who it is." He let out a sound that was likely that of annoyance.

"Very well, human," he returned my glare, before vanishing into the night sky. I waited a few moments to make sure he was truly gone before I turned around to check on Issei. The poor boy was slack-jawed, and if it could get any lower, it would touch the ground. He was stammering, not that I blamed him. I placed my hand on his shoulder, noticing how he almost recoiled away.

"Look, I'll explain everything I know tomorrow, after school. It's been a long day for the both of us."


	3. Chapter 3

Oh, heaven forbid Issei even listen to a word I said. I suppose I really, really shouldn't be surprised, but I was hoping Risa would have explained the situation already. Was a whole day really that much of a wait?

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"Look, I need to talk to you about,"

"What did I say?"

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Poke. Poke. Poke.

"Issei, please stop."

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"Why do want to explain later?"

"I swear, why can't you accept my answer already?"

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"Ok, so how about during lunch?"

*Angry muttering in Engrish*

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Let it be said, that Issei was about as determined as he was perverted. Normally, my temper wouldn't be getting the best of me, but Issei was about ready to drive me up a wall. He just kept asking! Part of me could understand, but that didn't do much to calm me down. Hopefully, lunch would give me plenty of time to recharge.

I hit my face against the table with no regard for subtlety, as I watched Issei head my direction. Thankfully, his perverted friends weren't with him. So much for my peaceful lunch.

"Fine, you win," I grumbled, hoping my displeasure was clear. "I'll give you a Cliff Notes version."

"Cliff Notes?" Issei once again was speaking in perfect English, or at least I thought he was.

"It's," I wanted to explain it, but "It's irrelevant. Just give me a few seconds, alright?" I tapped the underside of the small lunch table, letting my weak vail spell do its work. Almost immediately, I could feel two sets of eyes on me. Saji was nearly on the other end of the lunchroom, talking to some of his peers, and Kiba, who had been swarmed by much of the female members of our class. I meet their gaze's, hoping to convey at least some of the situation. Issei blinked, as if seeing something for the first time.

"What was that?" his voice gave away his shock, and I sighed into the palm of my hand. I was so glad my spell also muffled noise.

"Not all magic is flashy," I got out between bites, trying to avoid piling the muffin into my mouth. "Often times, most of it isn't."

"Magic? But, that's impossible," he stammered, still in denial. I let out a groan.

"I saved you last night from a creature ripped straight out of the Abrahamic faith, using lightning bolts. You really don't have any right to say what's impossible and what isn't," I glared at him, somewhat annoyed. I would have been more surprised if he took me at face value, but there are only so many ways to explain what happened besides magic and being high.

"Look, you wanted to know, and right now, I don't have much a choice but throw you into the deep end," I tried my best from keeping my frustration from showing.

"What does that even mean?" the brunette looked at me, completely confused. To that, I grinned slightly.

"Wow, that translation thing is really bad at figures of speech," I was still grinning. "You do realize we've been having this entire conversation in English, right?"

"Eh?" Issei's surprise as it finally seemed to register was priceless. His eyes bulged, like some type of anime. "How?"

"Magic," I merely grinned enjoying this little moment. "Though it's not mine. You've been speaking pretty good English for the past week." I wasn't going to be the one explaining he became a devil. Really, having a conversation of, hey, you got stabbed by your girlfriend and were only saved due by being turned into a devil, wasn't one I wanted to have.

"So, if that wasn't a bad dream, does that mean Yuuma was one of those things too?" Issei looked actually depressed as he asked the question, eyes downcast, almost as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment. I blinked back in surprise, before wanting to smack myself. Of course, he was hurting! She approached him as the one thing he wanted more than anything and used that trust to stab him in the chest.

I took in a deep breath, and let go of my simmering anger. That wouldn't do anything to help. Part of me wanted to sugar coat it. Issei was in more pain than he was willing to let on, and no matter how much I disliked him, I didn't want to carve even more gouges into his emotions and physic. But in the long run, it wouldn't help either. Eventually, she was going to come back and finish what she started, and when that happened, lying to Issei would only make things worse.

"Yes," I finally said. "Yuuma is a fallen angel, like the one from last night." Issei's shoulders sagged, seemingly sapped of strength. I placed a hand on his shoulder, pretty much watching his self-esteem crumble like sand.

"Because she is afraid of you," I did my best to make my voice unreadable.

"Eh?" Issei looked up, eyes already stained with tears.

"There is something we have in common," I grinned, almost releasing my Scared Gear then and there. "We both have Scared Gears, artifacts given to us at birth. Mine is Divine Dividing, which allows me to divide someone's power in half every ten seconds, and add that strength to my own. Your's, I believe, is Boosted Gear, which allows you to double your power every ten seconds."

"Both are Longinus class Scared Gears, having the potential to kill gods," I continued, almost fervent, "Most of the supernatural world views them as threats to remove, or beings to gain allegiance with."

This time, it was Issie's turn to have his jaw dropped to the floor. His mouth had gone completely slack-jawed, like a puppet without strings. Well, I did just tell him he had the potential of killing gods. My reaction at the time was the same. Well, except for more shouting.

I still don't think I made Issei feel better though. That I barely put a bandage on the wound and hoped it would be enough. A distraction, nothing more or less.

Issei seemed to stare at his arm, seemingly lost in thought.

"So why hasn't it activated?" Issei's question snapped me out of my own thoughts, and I felt my face fold into a frown.

"I don't know. I've had mine since I was young, and only have my experience to really go on," I shook my head. "I might try and see if we can activate it tonight if something doesn't come up unexpectedly." Again, Issei's eyes lit up, and I knew I succeeded in taking his mind off the fallen angel, at least for a bit.

"Oh, yeah. You mentioned something about 'my master' last night. What is that about?" Issei had suddenly thrown me for a loop, and I internally swore. Damn it, I did mention that last night.

"That's not exactly a question I'm at liberty to answer," my statement caused Issei to deflate visibly, like a balloon. "Look, all I can say is that it's complicated for me to go over in the next oh, four minutes or so, and even if it wasn't, it's kind of something I don't have the right to talk about anyway."

Thankfully, that explanation was accepted, so I didn't have to spitball the whole, several members of our school. Yeah, they aren't human, and you're one of them and you didn't know about it until just know.

Yeah, he thinks finding out he has the potential to kill gods was jaw-dropping, I could only imagine what was to come. Issei, you have no idea how crazy the world you've stepped into is.

Then again, did I really know what I was stepping into?

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Finally. The end of the day. Hopefully, I could find a way to get Issei's Sacred Gear activated. There was quite a bit to do in that regard. I still hoped it wouldn't take too long or, or.

Why was there the sound of faint screaming in the hallway? It only seemed to get louder. I felt a minor pinprick on the back of my mind. It didn't seem like a scream of panic or pain. No, it sounded, joyous?

The door swung open, creating a clearer path for the noise to travel, and every girl in the room added their voices. I clapped my hands over my ears to block out as much noise as I could. It didn't really work, but it gave me enough time to find the source of the shrieking. Kiba. Really shouldn't be surprised. Kiba was easily the most popular guy in school, if only due to the large female population being head over heels in love with him. Didn't know much about him personally, with him being in a different class. What little I did know came from my sister, things like that he didn't have a girlfriend.

Strange, if one looked at the rest of the school population, who seemed to be here only so they had less competition in getting a girlfriend. Less so, from what I've seen of him. He seemed a bit more like me, interested in other things rather than romance.

Though the look on Issei's face showed his clear dislike of Kiba, and I had to hold back a chuckle. Knowing the brown-haired pervert, he was likely jealous of all the attention Kiba got. Despite that Issei's lack of any luck was because Issei was a known peeper, and none besides his friend group really wanted to hang out with him.

Which after today I would be probably considered a part of. Joy. Oh well, it's not like I had much of a reputation at school anyway.

"I came here by the order of Rias Gremory-senpai," Kiba still had his trademark grin, and I had to resist muttering about how it was about damn time. Issei seemed to be shocked by the statement. Well, it wasn't going to be every day that one was called on by one of the Great Buetities. A dream come true for Issei, no doubt.

"Both of you, I would like you to follow me," Kiba's voice made my head turn. I nodded, realizing that Rias would like to know exactly what I had told Issei. Well, looks like I might be home a bit on the late side of things. I internally flicked my mental calendar, noting that everything except for a long-term assignment, but everything besides what had been assigned today was finished.

"No!" one of the girl's shouted, giving way to protests coming from every direction. The racket nearly made me bring my hands to my ears in an attempt to block out the shouting, but I knew it would do me little good. I'm pretty sure I heard someone call me a delinquent, while another talked about pairing of all things.

"Damn shippers," I couldn't stop myself from muttering under my breath. I passed between Issei's two friends, still grumbling. Really? Bringing porn videos to school? Talk about disgusting.

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"Really? You live in a world where every myth ever conceived by man is real, yet the existence of a fat man with a white beard wearing a red suit going around the world giving gifts to children is somehow outlandish?" I looked at Issei and Kabi like both of them had lost their minds. I didn't want to deal with the awkward silence anymore, so I struck up a conversation. Issei wasn't going to do it, and Kiba seemed much too polite to try and force him to talk.

Thankfully for the two of them, I didn't have any problem with completely ignoring Japan's standard of politeness. Issei's reaction to finding out that Santa was real was hysterical, though not really surprising. He hadn't gotten his mind wrapped around the idea of all myths being real. Kiba, on the other hand, seemed surprised, trying to argue something like that didn't exist. I wasn't sure why, but regardless of his reasoning, I found it illogical.

Of course, that may have been me just lacking skepticism, but I did have proof of his existence. But that was irrelevant, as I was certain we'd reached our destination. The building before us was quite old, shrouded in trees, seemingly isolated from the rest of campus. The old school building, I was certain I'd heard about it at some point. Despite its age, it seemed in good repair, with the wood free of rot or mold and the window's pristine.

"Buchou is here," Kiba also took notice of our location, as Issei stared at the building in wonder. It was a pretty grand old place, and going inside only confirmed that either had spells placed on it or that someone was taking good care of the place. No dust, nor insects, appeared to have taken any root in this place.

We stopped in front of one of the doors, one that had a plack placed on it. Occult Research Club, it read, and I almost stopped in my tracks. I couldn't decide whether the name was a bit too much on the nose, or it was simply a joke.

Kiba had just knocked on the door and announced our arrival, as I suddenly felt a buzz in my pocket. I reached in, pulling out my phone and frowning.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to take this. It's my sister," I stated, slightly annoyed at the bad timing. Then again, I should have told her that I was going to this ahead of time. Kiba, thankfully nodded in understanding, leaving me outside the door frame.

"Yes?" I ask, hoping that my annoyance wasn't conveyed through the speaker. I didn't know whether it did or didn't, but her response only added to it.

"So, you and Issei, huh," her voice teased me, and I almost decided to hang up right then and there. But I didn't.

"So the rumor mill can't wait more than twenty-four hours," I sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm.

"You know how some people are. They leap at anything and devour it whether it was true or not. Especially when it gives them the feeling of revenge against a pervert and a delinquent," her comment almost made me pout.

"Really? Since when did I become the delinquent?" this time I let my displeasure be known, my voice somewhat harsh. She merely laughed back, as if I had told a bad joke.

"You mean the American loner who sits by himself every day wouldn't be seen as a delinquent?" I swear, I could tell she was sticking out her tongue at me. I let out a groan, somewhat tired by her antics.

"Look, I need to do something important. We can have this conversation later," I decided to swiftly to put an end to the conversation, and I could have felt the pout from where I stood.

"Ok. Love you!"

"Love you too," I muttered into the device, before ending the call and placing into my pocket. I lightly knocked on the door, and I heard Rias tell me to come in.

The room was full of the people I expected to be apart of Rias's peerage. Kiba, Aneko, the second of the two beauties, alongside a tiny girl who did not appear like she belonged in this school at all. Koneko, I believe. I remember my sister also talking about her, mostly about how cute she was.

Issei seemed to be enjoying himself, and it probably had something to do with two of the most popular girls in school being here. That and the shower. Why did this room even have a shower? I decided to spare my sanity the question a looked around the room. There were several chairs and couches, with each looking quite comfortable. But really drew my eye was the magic runes. On the ceiling, the walls, they were numerous, and I had no grasp of their function.

The true eye-popper was in the center of the room, fairly large magic circle, with enough room to fit several people. I had to stop myself from drooling. If that's what I thought it was, then I actually might see if I could find that old spellbook on teleportation.

"We, of the Occult Research Club, welcome you," Rias spoke, finally pulling my attention away from the circle. Issei seemed about ready to say some form of thank you, but she hadn't finished yet. "As a devil."

"EH!" Issei's reaction was priceless, looking to me, then to Rias, then back to me. His mouth hung open in complete and utter shock, eyes bulging. "You're talking about him, right?" he stammered out, causing me to chuckle a bit.

"About that," I rubbed my head in a sheepish manner. "I'm pretty sure I'm the only human in the room." Issei's response was to sit down, appearing shocked. I ultimately sat next to him, seeing as the other seats were being rapidly filled.

"James is correct. We ourselves are also devils," Rias stated, and I could hear the hamster wheel inside Issei's brain making the rounds. However, after my talk about the fallen angels from earlier today, and Santa, he seemed to believe what most would consider an outlandish claim.

"I've spoken to him about the Fallen Angels and why might be after us," I said, hoping to point the conversation in the proper direction. Rias nodded as I suddenly felt Issei's gaze turn to me.

"Wait, really?" Issei stared at me. "I don't remember you getting a girlfriend."

"I didn't. She decided to try and take my family hostage," I had to stop myself from growling it out. That event was a bit of a sore spot at the moment. "The one that attacked Issei said her name is Mittelt, and thinks I killed her."

Rias frowned at my revelation, seemingly lost in thought.

"Did you?" Issei asked, almost out of shock.

"If the spell made direct contact, then that's the most likely outcome. Even a glancing blow would prove crippling," I shrugged. "Not my intention, but if it keeps my family safe."

"Fallen Angels have been at war with Devil's since ancient times. We've been fighting for possession of the Underworld, which is called Hell in the human world. Each side controls one half of the planet. Us Devils form pacts with humans, and receive their sacrifices and feed their strength. Fallen Angels, on the other hand, manipulate humans into killing Devils. Because of this, God ordered his Angel's to kill both races. The three factions and their war that has been going on since ancient times," as Rias spoke, I could tell Albion was feeling a little bit nostalgic.

"Those were the days," I could tell the dragon was grinning, or whatever it was that passed off as grinning for a dragon. "When not even God could stand before Draig and me without aid."

Issei, on the other hand, seemed to be processing the story in its entirety. It was a lot to take in, especially for a teenager who never had to experience something like that before. Issei seemed to be lost in thought.

"Does he know about her?" I watched Rias mouth. I nodded, before coming to a realization. Issei didn't ask why he was still alive. He wasn't aware that he died! I mouthed back, hoping she got what I was saying. I think she did. I just hoped she'd break it to him gently. The shock of actually dying and being brought back might be a bit much for Issei right now.

"As you already know, Amano Yuuma is a Fallen Angel," Rias spoke once again, seeming to draw Issei from his thoughts. I saw something flashed across his face briefly, only adding to my concern. I don't think I've actually seen Issei angry before, now that I thought about it.

That made me frown. While Issei had begun to give the impression of passionate, but ultimately pretty chill, the fact I'd been in school for months and had yet to see true anger from him. Then again, that may just be Japanese politeness at work, seeing as there were no cases, maybe besides Sona, who really didn't count, and the pervert trio's victims, who gave the three exactly what they deserved.

"This Fallen Angel approached you with a goal in mind. After she accomplished it, she destroyed as much evidence as possible," Rias continued, her eyes locked straightforward, a look of seriousness written on her face.

"Goal?" Issei didn't seem to be taking the string of revelations well, seeming close to panic.

"Yes. To kill you."

The world stilled. I winced, preparing for the freak out that was sure to be coming.

"What!" Issei's shout took me off guard. My attempt at preparation honestly worked against me, causing my tight muscle's to uncoil, nearly causing me to jump straight off the coach. "But I'm still alive! How does that work?"

"You called me when you were on the verge of death. I was summoned through this paper," Rias explained, holding out a small leaflet. My eyes flickered between the rune placed on the piece of paper to the circle of the center of the room. I felt my eyes widen in shock. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were connected.

"This magic circle used to summon us, Devils. Not many people who draw this circle to summon us, so we hand out leaflets to those who might summon Devils. One of our familiars was disguised as a human and was handing them out at the business district, which is where you got yours," Rias went on, explaining what happened in detail. Issei likely knew part of what happened, but I didn't. "After you were attacked by the Fallen Angel, you wished hard enough to summon me. When you summoned me, I knew that you were a Scared Gear user and that you were attacked by a Fallen Angel. However, you were on the brink of death. Even though humans don't have the same weakness to light Devil's do, being impaled by a light spear is still lethal."

"So, I decided to save your life," Rias stood at her declaration, "That is why you're alive as a Devil. Ise, you were reborn as a Devil of mine Rias Gremory's servant!"

I watched as wings snapped from their backs, long and bat-like. More than imposing, seeing as it was my first time seeing them.

"You may want to move," Albion spoke, causing me to look around. Why? It wasn't like anything was going to happen. They were just showing off their wings as little extra proof. The same snapping noise that accompanied that of Rias's peerage was what alerted me to what was happening. I grabbed the top of the couch, legs, and arms working in unision to yank my body out the way of Issei's wings. His look of shock confirmed that he hadn't done it on purpose.

"Let us introduce everyone anew," Rias nodded to Kiba on her right.

"My name is Kiba Yuuto. As you already know, I'm a second year, just like both of you," Kiba's voice was once again full of calm and politeness. "I am a Devil. It's nice to meet the two of you."

"First year. Toujou Koneko. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm a Devil too," Koneko spoke very slowly, and I couldn't tell whether she was being shy or something else entirely.

"My name is Himejima Akeno, and I'm a third year. I'm also the vice-president of the Occult Research Club. It's nice to meet you. Even though I'm like this, I'm also a Devil," her chuckle, or what I thought was a chuckle, the sound of Ufufu, nearly sent chills down my spine. Rias sent me a look, effectively telling me I was up next.

"James Baker, second year." I bowed slightly, much like the others in the room had. "Human magician, currently employed. It is nice to meet you as well."

"And I'm their master as well as being a Devil from the House of Gremory, Rias Gremory. My house holds the rank of Duke. Let's get alone from now on."

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"Are you sure it's wise to release Issei's Sacred Gear out in the open like this?" I asked as the members of the Occult Research Club had arrived at one of the small sports fields that wasn't in use.

"There are spells that keep those without magic away from here, and other's that will repair any damage caused when we leave," Rias explained. "I assure you, it's perfect for our needs."

"Ok Issei, stand directly across from me," I shouted, as the brown-haired pervert got into position. Rias told me there were a few ways to awaken a Sacred Gear, and in our situation, only two were going to work. Induce enough stress on the host so it wakes up as a self-defense mechanism, more just brute force it awake. Really, only the later was available for me. Issei had already been attacked twice and killed once. That should have done the trick, but no, of course, it hadn't.

"Ok, now, raise your left hand, palm facing the ground," Issei did as instructed, raising his left hand. "Now, imagine the most powerful being you can think of, and take the most iconic stance you can think of them in."

"Ideally, it'll work something like this," I punched my open palm with a loud crack, releasing Divine Dividing in all its glory. While I didn't need a handicap in getting it out, I hoped a demonstration would help speed things along.

"Strongest being," I heard Issei mutter, taking a familiar stance. Oh, Goku and his Kamehameha attack. Well, I do suppose there are few things more iconic than that. Let alone from someone that powerful, fictional or not. And it seemed to be working, as faint energy began to glow on his arm.

"Now, you must perform the attack. Put as much power behind it as you can. Your wants and desires. Otherwise, your Scared Gear won't activate," I said, as I watched Issei realize he'd have to actually do the whole Kamehameha motion.

"Kamehameha!" Issei declared, performing the attack in a very convincing manner. Light began to pour out of his left hand, covering his entire hand in a green glow. Issei started shouting in swift order, freaking out. I hoped Rias was right about the warding, because Issei was creating quite the fuss, and I wasn't sure how I'd explain what was happening anyway.

I twitched, feeling a slight pulse from within my Sacred Gear as the light from Issei's grew ever brighter, eventually reaching the point where I had to cover my eyes. Finally, the light began to die, allowing everyone to finally see it. Rather than simply covering his left hand, the Sacred Gear covered everything below the shoulder, creating what looked like a thick limb of dragon scale.

His fingers now ended like talons, with a green jewel resting at the back of his hand. Issei stared at it with wonder, and I was impressed. The flare of my own Sacred Gear hadn't escaped my attention. Was it going to be an incomplete awakening, and Albion merely brought it fully to surface somehow?

"Boosted Gear. At long last," Albion broke through my thoughts, causing me to internally frown.

"Albion, please don't tell me you had something to do with that," I shot back, somewhat concerned. I almost felt his frown back.

"No. Not actually, at any rate. This is the first time either of us has been near the other's awakening," Albion seemed as confused as I was, now that I actually pointed out what had happened. "It's possible our presence is what caused Issei's gear to fully awaken when it normally would have awoken partially."

"How do you use this thing?" Issei wasted no time, and I had to chuckle to myself. That question made me feel nostalgic, I remember asking that to my parents, and my sister asking that to me. I wasn't the only one. I swore I heard Akeno chuckle as well, possibly out of amusement.

"Slow down, will you. I don't think you want to go home and explain how you got that to your parents," I let out a laugh, one that I didn't know I'd been holding back on. Issei, looked somewhat dejected, almost like he got a question wrong on a test, or something similar. Or he was embarrassed about having to do a Kamehameha whenever he wanted to use his Sacred Gear.

"Relax. Now that Boosted Gear is activated, switching between active and resting states is easy. Close your eyes, and focus on what your hand looked like before." Issei did as instructed, closing his eyes. As he exhaled, Boosted Gear vanished from sight.

"Good. You can now open your eyes." Issei wiggled his fingers, looking at them with the intensity of one trying to decipher some type of magic trick. It reappeared just as suddenly, leaving Issei laughing himself.

"I'll leave you to it, then," Rias spoke, as I noticed the other members of the club had vacated the area, likely to do whatever tasks they needed to perform. "Though I will need to borrow him tomorrow to explain some of the finer points about being a Devil."

"Of course, senpai," I bowed, as Rias chuckled.

"Please, Rias is just fine," I was corrected, nodding, marking it away in my mind. Issei himself had bowed practically all the way to the ground. Rias let out another brief laugh at our antics, before walking back to the clubhouse building.

"Shall we begin?" I asked, Issei taking a few moments to physically respond.

"Right!" Issei's declaration was full of the vigor I'd begun to associate with him. Well, at least he was enthusiastic about all this.

"To activate your Sacred Gear, simply say boost. It'll do the rest," I started, watching Issei with ammusment.

"Boost!" Issei shouted, rising the gauntlet high into the air.

'Boost!' Boosted Gear echoed, emerald jewel flaring brightly. Issei certainly didn't look or feel different.

I spared a quick glance at my phone. Well, there was another hour left before my sister's archery practice ends. I suppose that was enough time to see if he actually increased anything.

"Ok, let's start by running back and forth from over there," I pointed toward the other end of the field, "We run there and back until we can't anymore." Even as I had just begun my to hit my jogging pace, Issei was close to halfway up the field, leaving me behind in a cloud of dust.

Good. Let's see how long he can keep that up.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rias had left her familiar in the area to keep an eye on the two, watching as James trained the youngest member of her peerage. Normally, she would be smiling. After all, Issei did possess Boosted Gear, just like she had thought, and even better, she had procured the services of a teacher. But as she walked away, a troubled crease had wormed its way onto her face.

But things weren't adding up. During the past week, she had used her familiar to keep an eye on both Issei and James, mostly Issei, and she knew nothing about another Fallen Angel making an attempt on his life. Rias had been alerted when James suddenly left his house an hour before nightfall, seemingly in a panic for no discernible reason. It would make sense that the event occurred sometime between then and when he returned, an hour and a half later.

That lead to a rather troubling question. How did James know about the attack on Issei's life, before it had even occurred? Sure, it could be just a coincidence, but his actions put that into doubt. Being in contact with the Grigori was absurd as it was unlikely, not to mention they would have noticed such an event.

Plus, James was a terrible liar. He would have already given away such information by now. In fact, the only thing Rias was sure he lied about was that his family was unaware of the supernatural. But she and Sona had been willing to let that slide. From what he had told them, his Sacred Gear had been active for nearly ten years, meaning it awakened when he was seven. For it to be active at such an age, it was unlikely that he had kept it a secret, or knew the importance of doing so. Unfortunate, but things had worked out so far.

While not unheard of, awakening a Scared Gear by that age was impressive. Especially for a human of a non-magical bloodline.

But for now, she needed to prepare.


	4. Chapter 4

"Interesting," I mutter to myself, writing down notes rapidly in a small notebook, looking at the crackling dot of lightning before me. While Issei had been adapting to his newfound lease on life as a Devil, I had been doing my own things, outside of minor physical training that I could grab ahold of him for.

Many of the spells I'd found in the book Sona had given me were simple, things like creating magical lights, almost akin to candles. Nothing too special, but I'd always had a habit of pulling inspiration from strange places. Now what had once been the bare bones framework for my experiments in magically replicating ball lightning.

Things weren't going well, to say the least. Sure, the basic structure was down, but it simply didn't do anything, and I wasn't going to get close to a potentially new spell with unknown effects. Nor could I just leave it there, not knowing if it was unknowingly set to some type of timer.

So I did the most logical thing I could think of.

"Ball Lightning Experiment, test 1," I spoke, as my phone record me, placed behind several anti-lightning wards and shield spells, like everything else of value in the room, myself included. "Sphere is lightning based, three centimeters in diameter. Thus far, it has spent one minute active with no sign activity. It shows no response to non-organic stimuli." I tossed an igneous rock, an oceanic basalt at the orb, to no effect.

"This stick is around two and a half meters in length, coming from a still living Arakashi tree, otherwise known as a Quercus Glauca," I continued, picking the slightly modified branch off the ground, ready once more to fulfill its purpose.

"I'm going to poke it," as the stick got within around a foot and a half of the sphere, I felt it flash, letting loose a cocofiany of raging lightning that forced me to take a step back. While I was safe behind my wards, that didn't change that it felt one of my thunderbolt spells had gone off in my face, a feeling I was intimate with.

"Well, there's the fourth time you've nearly electrocuted yourself. Do you want a medal?" Albion snarked directly into my mind.

"How close are we to having the near electrocutions match or surpass the actual ones?" I asked, completely ignoring his jab at my tendency to zap myself while works on spells.

"A while," Albion shook his head in annoyance already seeming to anticipate my response.

"Let's save celebration until then, shall we," I grinned before turning back to my phone. "As it can be seen, the spell activates only when organic matter passes a certain distance threshold from the sphere. Voltage is presently unknown, as is the maximum distance the spell effects when explodes. Spell will be known as Lightning Mine for future experiments."

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"Ah, Issei, what a surprise," I looked up from my meal with a bit of surprise. Issei and I really didn't talk all that much. Sure, I was training him before he rode out into the night on his bike, but my endurance and strength training left little time for conversation, and he was convinced I was some type of monster in human flesh.

I mean, seventy pushups and situps every day wasn't that bad, and surely devil physiology could handle it.

There had become more or less an unspoken agreement between us. If he was sitting with me for lunch, that meant he wanted to talk about something supernatural in nature. Otherwise, he kept with his two friends, and I kept myself with my sanity.

"How does one increase their reserves of magic?" he asked the moment he felt my veil go up. I was taken a bit back by such a question, frowning slightly. An unexpected question, but Rias had done a good job of making sure there was little left obviously, leaving whatever came up within his mind.

Seeing how most of his peerage was either older or younger than he was, and the only member his age was Kiba, who Issei didn't like, I was the one he came too whenever he had a sudden question.

"Using magic is akin to stretching a muscle," I heard Issei groan the moment I said muscle, but I ignored him and continued on. "The more you use it, the better you get at using it." I paused, thinking about why he would be asking such a question.

"Where is this coming from, anyway?" I was more than a bit confused. Issei hadn't shown any interest in magic before now. Seeing how he was now a Devil, apparently, a race that had its own brand of magic, aside from spellcasting that humans had to use, I would be surprised if that didn't change to some degree.

"You remember that magic circle at the clubhouse?" I nodded, indeed remember it. "I tried using it yesterday, and couldn't." He rubbed his head sheepishly, almost embarrassed with himself.

"Rias thinks I have less magic than a newborn Devil," my mouth opened. Then closed. Opened. Then closed. My brain tried to wrap its way around Issei's statement.

"What?" was ultimately all I could spit out. I knew Issei's magical potential was bad, well below what one might expect from a Scared Gear user. Even before he became a Devil, I would be hard pressed to believe he was anything less than bellow the human norm. It might make some degree of sense, that a single pawn piece wouldn't increase magical power by a significant margin, but he had eight.

My brain tumbled, already knawing its way through the information. Clearly, Issei's physical strength wasn't the only thing need vast amounts of work, but his magical power was in even greater need of being improved.

That would be more than an uphill battle. Issei had to have some degree of magic, or his Sacred Gear wouldn't work in the first place. So I just needed to find how much, and start working from there. I was mentally going over spells in my mind, both ones I've simply learned and ones I've tinkered with. Most of them were combat spells, few even remotely close to appropriate for beginners.

Sparks was simply a rehashed version of the same spell found in the Elder Scrolls games, cheap, little range, and I had to actually put magic into the mandal for it to actually be useful, but it did its job. Static, the building block for one of my favorite spells was built for incapacitating. Simply cast it around my hand, and the next thing I touched with that hand would be zapped. The long and short of it was that I had a magical teaser. A bit more draining over the short term, but still fun.

Everything else was either minor cantrips or illusions. And I was not going to teach Issei illusions. Giving a pervert an invisibility spell was like giving a sociopath a book that allows him to kill anyone he wants. It was nothing short of a disaster waiting to happen, and I wasn't going to play any part of it.

"Well, I can teach you a few minor spells, but human magic and Devil magic are completely two different beasts. But who knows, maybe it'll help," I said. I mean it wasn't like things could turn out too badly. I mean, getting Issei to point where he could cast a simply candlelight would take long enough, giving me more than plenty of time to improve myself.

"Including veil?" Issei didn't make an attempt to appear innocent in his question. My eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Heaven and Hell would need to be at peace, pigs would need to fly, and Hell would need to freeze over before I'd even consider teaching you anything about illusion magic," I glared straight ahead, likely causing chills to run down Issei's spine. He jumped back, appearing somewhat fearful. Did he really expect me to not know what he'd do with such a power? No, I was not going to enable your peeping, thank you very much.

"We can meet after class, and hopefully, I can get you started."

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I flipped through the small notebook, making sure every spell was in place. Alongside showing Issei a few spells, I had passed word to Sona and Rias that I had a newfound spell a wished to display. Lightning mine was more than ready, and while a few tweaks could be made, it was functional and fully armed. I had a new stick, and I knew how far the blast radius was. In fact, I'd figured out a way to control that, along with the size of the detection field.

Issei ran over, clearly happy to get started, even with me holding a massive branch in my hand. I closed my spell tome, pushing it into my backpack. I wouldn't really need it for this. Like before, the area was completely devoid of other human begins.

"So, how are we doing this?" Issei rasped, his voice betraying his run from the clubhouse. "And what's with the stick?"

"Couldn't convince Sona to let me borrow one of the marker boards, so we're doing this the old fashion way," I created two circles in the dirt, before marking runes between the two, pushing aside the dirt of the infield. "This is Candle Light. It does as the name implies, creates light, akin to that produced by a candle."

I held out my hand, letting the mandal sit there, not activating the spell. Issei looked at it, almost disappointed in what he saw. I continued to let him study it, before finally releasing the effect. A small light, not providing much compared to the sun's rays, but it could be seen, which was more than enough.

"Your turn," I said, as Issei closed his eyes and focused. I stared at his outstretched palm. I wasn't sure what I was expecting. But nothing happened. Not even a flicker of magical energy came. Issei's shoulders slumped.

"We could try using Boosted Gear to increase your magic," I offered, trying to cheer him up.

"I can do that?" Issei perked up almost immediately. I would be surprised if it didn't, but it raised a single problem. Would those boosts be enough? Part of me had my doubts, I wouldn't lie. Candlelight was such a fundamentally basic and easy to use spell. If Issei's magical power was too low, then boosting it wasn't going to anything than brute force a solution. But for now, it would have to do.

"We can try. I can't make promises that it'll work though," I nodded. On paper, it should work. And if it didn't, then well, I could always try to find another solution. Maybe there was a way to divide the amount of magical energy it took to activate a spell at full strength?

That would be an interesting line of research, actually. Sure, it's full potential couldn't be reached without Balance Breaker. I could only imagine, being able to cast dozens, if not hundreds of lightning bolts, or hell, lightning spears, all within a few seconds of each other. Oh, the damage that could be wrot.

"Focus," I felt Albion probe at my mind, a gentle reminder of what I was here for and needed to do.

I held out the spell again, letting Issei observe it as he built up his two boosts. Slowly, the circle began to form around his palm, runes taking shape. It hung to his open palm, almost if clinging there.

"What do I do now?" Issei's voice was full of childish wonder, and a twinge of fear. Almost like he was holding something precious but fragile, and had no idea what to do with it. Like he was holding a small child of sorts.

"Just put as much magical energy as you think you need into it, and it should activate itself. But don't put...," the spell suddenly cracked. "All of it in," I finished, preparing wards incase it exploded. Thankfully, even if the spell was overloaded if barely, it didn't explode with any more force than what could be found in a party popper.

Issei once again slumped over, as I shook my head. Honestly, it had ended much better than the first time I took a try at spellwork.

"Relax, you did fine," I said, trying to cheer him up. "Besides, success isn't one grand event, it's a bunch of small steps along a path that it leads to."

"Plus, compared to what happened when I first tried using magic," I rubbed my hair, trying to avoid thinking back. All I cared to remember was that everything that happened was messy, dinner was ruined, and that it was my fault. "Really, that was nothing to be ashamed of."

Issei seemed to perk up at that, before noticing something over my shoulder.

"Rias-senpai," Issei pretty much bows, earning a chuckle from the older devil. Next to the crimson haired devil was Sona.

"Rias, Sona," I nodded slightly, trying to keep some mediocrity of respect. Issei's eyes seemed to widen a bit in surprise, while Sona seemed to frown at my lack of politeness. I wasn't going to be calling her boss if that's what she was expecting. Even if the title was the closest thing to describing how things were. Plus, she co-shared that position with Rias, and she asked that I referred to her more casually than I would otherwise.

"I'm honestly surprised. To think you'd start with magic so soon," Rias commented, with a slight grin that either could be smug or taking what I was doing as some type of challenge.

"If you're busy, we're more than willing to move back the demonstration," Sona adjusted her glasses, keeping her professional appearance. Issei's eyes flicked to me, clearly curious what this was about, and surprised that Sona was a devil as well.

"Nows fine," I shrugged, picking up the stick I had left in the dirt. Sona's frown only grew, while Issei and Rias looked puzzled. "However, I would advise everyone to stay around ten meters away from that spot for the remainder of this demonstration." I pointed my stick towards the grassy area of the field, where there would be less dust. Everyone seemed a bit perplexed by my statement, seeing as nobody was near the area, but precautions were precautions.

I let the spell form in my hand, three circles taking shape before releasing the spell, causing a bright crackling orb to appear three meters off the ground.

"Originally, I intended this spell to replicate the weather phenomena of Ball Lighting, using candlelight to form the foundation. As can be seen, this didn't work out. However, the result is much more interesting," with that, I cast a lightning ward spell around the large branch in hand, and threw it. It arced through the air, getting closer and closer, and the moment it got within two meters, the sphere expanded rapidly. At first glance, it would have looked like an explosion, nearly reaching seven meters across. Within, lightning raged, if only for a few seconds, before finally subsiding.

"You used a candlelight spell to make that?" Sona seemed far less concerned than I thought she would be. "And failed at your intended goal as well. That is curious."

"Using magic is like doing math. Making magic is more like a program. For devils, I don't know if the same thing implies, but it's how it works for us humans," I explained, trying to give my best to give off a scholarly impression. "Sometimes, runes don't simply match together, and it ends up creating a result that, mathematically speaking"I', shouldn't happen. That's what happened here. Something in the spell's framework, causes the spell to be used all at once, rather than a prolonged discharge."

"I'm still curious as to why you tried to make such a spell," Rias and Sona had clearly understood what I was getting at, though Issei still looked confused. I'd be a bit surprised if he wasn't. What I was talking about was like expecting a beginner math student to understand the basics of calculus.

"Which is better? Being able to shoot lightning, or being able to through an orb of lightning that shoots even more lightning?" I shrugged, assured in my point. From a coolness perspective, the later sure beat out the former. Might even beat it in efficiency, too. Rias agreed with my reasoning, or at the very least, accepted it.

"I kind of have two versions of the spell at this point," I held up my hand, letting the first variation of the spell flicker to life, without the ruin that allowed it to explode. "This would be considered the default variation. Its activation radius is around a third of a meter in size and discharges a blast approximately five meters across. It will always appear two meters from the user unless there is a physical object in the way, in which will cause the spell to fizzle out.

"The second, "I held up my other arm, this time holding a set of three mandal's, with the outer ring constantly shifting, as runes faded in and out. "It allows for the caster to control things like blast radius, detection area, and distance the mine can be set. It costs more for a greater increase beyond the original. I haven't tested the minimum or maximum to their greatest extent, so there still might be a few changes I might have to add. Beyond that, I think it's perfectly safe and usable."

"I must admit, being able to make calculated spells is no simple task, yet you seem to have a very good grasp on it," Sona nodded, seemingly pleased, "most human magicians simply seek to learn spells, rather than formulate their own. I'd very much like to see a copy of this and any other spells you might have."

"I would like that as well. I do believe Akeno would enjoy some new material as well," Rias nodded in agreement, causing my chest to fill with pride from the indirect praise.

"Just wait until they learn how many times you've electrocuted yourself," Albion teased, which I ignored. Hey, I put several years of my life into this stuff, and I was finally seeing some payoff! Sure, I hadn't done it for recognition, but at that moment, I didn't care.

"Do you want just the spells, or do you want me to leave in my scrawlings?" I questioned. The spellbook in my backpack wasn't just full of spell function and mandal's, it was full of research notes, drawings, and sometimes, just random thoughts pertaining to a spell, where the idea came from, and sometimes, just random stuff and theories if what I was doing wasn't working. Sure, stuff like that wouldn't be needed, but it was just polite to ask anyway, if only for clarification's sake.

I would leave out anything I was still working on or simply unsafe. The arcane golem spellwork was out by several miles, for more than a few reasons, the fact it didn't work no matter what I tried withstanding. Same with my strongest, seeing as that would fry anyone who tried using it and be overkill nine times out of ten.

"Just details directly pertaining to the spells should suffice," Sona said simply, followed by a nod from Rias. So only diagrams, functions, and some important notes. That sounded like an easy enough workload.

"Ok, I'll get some supplies on the way home, after I finish with Issei for the day," I nodded, hearing the brown-haired pervert gulp.

"Please, don't overexert him," Rias smiled slightly, before heading back to the clubhouse, while Sona left to go whatever it was she had to do.

"Wait, so since when was Sona a Devil again?" Issei asked, whether from his own confusion or an attempt at distraction I didn't know.

"I'll explain to you while we run," I grinned, causing Issei to let out a groan. I merely chuckled. Hey, if he wanted to outpace me in the sun, he needed to build up his endurance, and that couldn't be built up if we stood around all day.

"Look at it like this," I said, hoping to get Issei into a mood where he'd actually run. "Do you remember old school Dragon Ball, back when they started training with gravity multiple times that of earth's?"

"Yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with this?" Issei questioned, giving me a puzzled expression.

"Sunlight makes Devils weaker, right? So wouldn't training under its effects makes you even stronger?" I grinned slightly, watching as my reasoning wiggled its way through his mind.

"That's almost crazy enough to work," I heard him mutter, and I grinned even more. Of course, it would work. On paper, at any rate. "And as for the whole Sona thing, well."

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"Let me get this straight," Issei stared at me, completely flabbergasted by what I had told him. "So, your Sacred Gear has a powerful dragon inside it that also communicates with you telepathically."

"That is correct," I nodded, watching the green-eyed pervert wrap his mind around what I had told him.

"My Sacred Gear also has one, and those two dragons were rivals, and we are supposed to carry on that legacy," I nodded, hoping to continue things along. "And you, being tired and stressed, accidentally respond out loud to Albion, who wants you to punch me in the face, and revealed everything you were trying to keep secret."

The last part caused Issei to begin laughing, and even I chuckled at myself. Yeah, when put like that, it sounded more stupid and silly than it actually was.

"Besides, fights between Divine Dividing and Boosted Gear tend to destroy where they take place, let it be in the real world or the supernatural one. I'd much rather not be involved in any city-leveling events in the foreseeable future," I added, causing Issei's eyes to bug out like it had when I'd told time the entire student council was made of devils. Oh, yeah, I really did miss out on recording that one.

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Issei and I split up on the way home, him to enjoy what time off he had before his devil job started tonight, and me to pick up some more supplies. With an unsurprising lack of anything that might resemble a traditional spellbook, I settled for the old standby.

From there, most of my time was spend copying down whatever was relevant to the spells at hand, and I was making headway, organizing the book in alphabetical order, rather than it's original chronological one. I'd got about halfway through the first copy when I got a text from Rias. I frowned, looking at the time displayed on my phone. It was already dark out, closing in towards nine o'clock.

On one hand, Rias wouldn't contact me if it wasn't important, even if I hadn't been given the task of writing done three spellbooks. But, I had no idea how long this activity would be, and it's a school night. I'd much rather not stay up too late anyway, and I really had no idea how being active at night effected Devils anyway. I mean, did devil's even need sleep?

However, going still would prove to be a good idea. I mean, going with a little less sleep wouldn't be the end of the world. I'd have to book it to the clubhouse though, and I was certain the gates wouldn't be open this time of night. And me running around might cause questions that I didn't like the possible answers too.

I let out a groan, forcing my brain to stop its complicated loop as I grabbed my phone and house keys.

"Sweety, where are you going?" A voice asked from behind me, leading me to turn around. Oh, right, I knew I was forgetting something.

"Rias contacted me. She said she wanted me for something," I said, causing my mother to frown. Between her and my father, she was the most protective towards us and really didn't approve of the whole 'getting involved with Devils' thing, even though she understood the necessity of the situation. Her green eyes stared at me, almost as if to pierce my soul.

Finally, her stare relented, ultimately sighing in preemptive defeat. "Just be careful, ok. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I will, mom," I grinned, unlocking the door to step outside into the cool night air. "I love you!"

"I love you too," as I turned around, I felt something. It was a prick, a blink and you'll miss it feeling. It made my hair on the back of my neck to stand up on end. But there was no source, no magic, and no explanation. Ultimately, I ignored it, even though Albion felt a bit unnerved by it. What was I supposed to do anyway? Expect that it somehow came from my mother, who didn't have a killer bone in her body?

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"I was wondering if you were going to make it," Rias smile was warm and friendly, filled with a bit of pleasant surprise. The entire club was arranged outside the front gate of the school, still in their uniforms.

I was partially surprised. Even Issei, who had a likely chance to change at home, hadn't removed his school uniform. Speaking of the pervert, he seemed somewhat depressed again, looking down at his feet. Had something happened that I wasn't aware of, or was this something new? Or was that why Rias had called me here?

"Do you remember what Sona and I told you about Stray Devils?" the question took me off guard, and I had no shame in admitting it.

"You didn't," I stated rather bluntly. I didn't know whether I sounded rude or not, but Rias seemed to shrug it off.

"A stray devil is a devil that has turned against their master or has killed them," Rias began, "here in the mortal world, they're especially dangerous, as they don't have a king piece to stabilize their powers, causing their strength to go out of control. It is our job to deal with them if they cross into our territory."

I nodded, processing the information. While I could see some justifiable cases for why one would commit such an act, such as a king being cruel, if not outright forcing one to do things against their will. However, I wasn't going to ignore that there was a threat to the town, and that is was going to need to be dealt with.

Our target was hiding on the outskirts of town, in an area I never visited. Sure, Rias's peerage was doing well, being able to see in the night, but I sure couldn't see a damn thing. I didn't even need to enter the building to feel ill at ease.

"Smell of blood," Koneko's voice rang out from the darkness, somewhere from my right. Note, if I was going to continue this, I needed to work on a spell that let me see in the dark! All the while, I felt Issei's nerves increase. All the while, I felt something build up around me. Killing pressure, and it wasn't quite like anything I'd experienced before. Then again, my experience with such things was minimal, but I'd already formed two spells, nerves on a fine point edge. I released several spells, sending orbs of light into the darkness. Each spell created a bright flash in the distance as I attempted to reveal the stray but to no success.

I was vaguely listening to Rias's explanation of the whole evil piece system, and the Rating Games that arose from it. To call it even remotely close to chess would be like calling a car a motorcycle, or calling chess an accurate war simulator.

"It approaches," Albion warned, even though I could already feel shear bloodlust radiating from something I couldn't see. Each footfall was load, like some type of monster, one that had pulled itself straight from hell. My imagination ran wild, each possibility as worse than the one that came before. Centaur, squid abomination, half spider freak straight out of Dark Souls.

Once again, candlelight spells formed behind me, even as it's inhuman laugh echoed around us.

"Candlelight, shoot," I mutter, attempting to calm my raging nerves, releasing more than a dozen orbs of light through the area. It didn't light up the whole space, but it lit up enough for me to see the beast before us.

I regretted that choice. I averted my eyes immediately from the completely uncovered, but I couldn't completely ignore the two spears it held in hand. Its tail twitched erratically, as the light from my spell appeared to be painful to her eyes. Supporting her body were four massive legs, ending in razor-sharp claws, each easily enough to cut me open with ease.

"Yuuto!"

"Yes!"

Kiba went in first, taking off like a rocket towards the stray, dancing around it with grace and ease. I was able to follow him, if only just barely. I blinked, and the next thing I heard was it's scream, as both its arms collided with the ground, blood painting the walls. Kiba now had two blades in hand.

"Yuuto's piece is knight. Those with the knight piece receive a boost in speed," Rias explained, and I did suppose that made visual sense. But the swords. It seemed like Issei wasn't the only one with a Sacred Gear. Kiba had Sword Birth if my memory was correct.

While my attention was on Kiba, Koneko had moved to join the fight as well.

"Die insect!" was the only reason I had noticed the small girl, as the stray tried to step on her. The key word tried. Despite the fact the thing was more than three times my height, and probably many times that my weight, Koneko was holding it off with ease. No, my eyes widened in a mix of shock and horror was the tiny girl managed to lift the stray entirely off the ground. And that was before she threw it into the air, with the follow-up punch sending it flying across the room.

"The trait of a rook is simple. Absolute strength and physical defense," Rias continued her lecture, completely unaware of how much of an understatement what she said was. I mean, I never thought I would feel pity for the laws of physics, but here I was.

However, it seemed to be getting back up, despite bleeding out from it's two missing limbs alongside the fact that its ribs and organs were now likely little more than a fine paste. Stubborn was likely a word to describe, but this was a fight to the death. All things had an instinctual drive to keep themselves alive. Well, most things.

"James," I was surprised when Rias called my name, but I stepped forward anyway. Seeing this monster taken down a peg or two helped, but part of me was doubting that I'd need to have used balance breaker from the start.

"So the human comes out to play," I could tell it was taunting me. Underestimating me. I clamped down hard on my pride before it could flare up. "I will teach you…"

I never let it finish. Lightning connected with its face, causing it to scream in pain, but it wasn't enough to kill. I fired the second bolt into the stomach, scorching the area into charcoaled flesh. Divine Dividing hummed to life, lifting me off the ground as if to create space.

"If there is anything you should learn to fear, it is us," I mutter to myself, though I doubted that the statement wasn't even remotely private. Then I let both spears of lightning fly. A fresh scream of pain confirmed that both had found their mark, burrowing deep into its front legs. The stray's face, once arguably pristine, looked up at me with a single hate-filled eye, the other lost in a mass of darkened, charred flesh.

It could only keep my gaze for a single second before each spear detonated. Chunks of the limb flew everywhere in a bloodless splatter. Yet, it's body still moved, a combination of its devil nature and its present monstrous form seemingly allowing it to shrug off more damage than it had any right to.

"The best piece for James would be bishop," Rias explained, seemingly uncaring of how brutal I had just been. "Bishop's may be the physically weakest of the pieces, but they provide a significant boost to magical power." I almost resented that remark. Sure, I wasn't a devil, and I certainly wasn't going to be winning weightlifting anytime soon, but I certainly could do more than snipe from afar with spells.

"Akeno," Rias commanded, leading me to fall back, planting both feet on the ground once again. I was curious to see Rias's queen in action. The only warning I received was a flash above, as lightning arced directly from the sky. It's body twitched, the stray letting out a wordless scream of pain. It wasn't the screams of pain that had been invoked before. No, this was the scream of something being electrocuted to death. If this was a regular affair, no wonder she wasn't surprised by me. Akeno likely did worse with more regularity.

I immediately tuned out the sadistic laughing. If I let that image seer itself into my head, then I was never going to be able to look at her the same again. Thankfully, Rias had begun talking again, so I actually had a reason to look away from the display before me.

"The queen piece has attributes for all the other pieces, the speed of a knight, strength, and defense of a rook, combined with the magical prowess of a bishop. She is the strongest member of my peerage, besides myself," Rias finished, as I tried to process the information given to me. Barring the king was supposed to be the weakest piece, the chess analogy was holding itself together if one was willing to stretch their imagination.

Which left Issei as her only pawn, which had coasted her all eight of the things. Out of all the pieces, pawns were the weakest, though one should only underestimate them at their own peril. A stray pawn that managed to get all the way across the board could become any of the four other pieces. Did such a mechanic become translated, and how would it work if it did?

I looked up as I heard Issei gulp, regretting it at once, seeing as Akeno's face was now flushed red, some form of twisted blush. Great, I was going to have nightmares tonight, wasn't I?

It took a few minutes, but the traumatizing onslaught was at its end. I was very, very afraid of what she might be able to do with my spells. Rias stroud forth, raising her hand.

"Any last words?" it's something I expected to hear out a Saturday morning cartoon villain. However, from Rias, it actually sounded intimidating. Like she hadn't fought some monster that needed to be vanquished, but rather like this was almost like child's play.

"Kill me," it wasn't a request, it was a demand. Where Kiba, Koneko and I had damaged it, weakened it, crippled it, Akeno had broken it. All that was left was a fairly living pile of scorched meat.

"Then disappear," a mass of black and crimson exited her hand, eating away at what remained of the stray. In a few seconds, it's body was entirely gone, not a trace of blood or bone remained. I shuttered. Disappear indeed.

"The Power of Destruction," Albion seemed to be taken back, seemingly surprised. I turned inwardly, puzzled.

"You recognize it?" I asked. He had fought against the Devils before, so I shouldn't be too surprised he would have heard of such a thing.

"Yes, but it doesn't make sense," I could feel Albion's confusion, which did nothing to resolve me of mine. He sensed mine though, which I was thankful for.

"The first thing you must know about Devils is that each major bloodline has a unique ability, belonging to them and them alone. The Power of Destruction, as its name implies, can unmake anything, and is arguably one of the strongest of these abilities," Albion explained.

"So, Rias has one of those powers. Shouldn't that make it less of a surprise?" I remained confused, pressing for the complete picture.

"If you let me finish, you would know that the Power of Destruction is not the power held by the bloodline of Gremory. It is found in the bloodline of Beal" Albion continued, cutting me off before I could interrupt again. "And yes, I am certain she is of the Gremory line like she claims. Their crimson hair might as well be their key defining trait."

"Oh," was my only response. Clearly, I still had much to learn about Devils as a whole. Still, that was a power I didn't want to cross, and I had learned a few new things and could take a stab at why Rias wanted to look at my work, even if it was to pass it on to Akeno. I still almost shuttered at the thought.

I looked up to Issei, who seemed to be trying to find out what piece he had. His eyes widen, before his body slumped, likely remembering what I told him at lunch.

"I'm a pawn, aren't I?" I honestly felt bad for the poor guy. It certainly wasn't every day you found out you were the weakest piece in Devil chess.


	5. Chapter 5

"So, this isn't going to work," I looked at the magical circle held in my hand frowning slightly. My sister was watching me from a few feet back, eyes seeming unfocused on her task.

"If you release the spell, then it will fail," her voice had a disturbing edge of finality to it, and I ultimately sighed, letting it fade. Well, there went a few years as well as my hopes and dreams.

"You were attempting to recreate the effects of Annihilation Maker with spellcraft. Even in failure, the fact you managed to get this far is worthy of praise," Albion chimed in with an attempt to cheer me up. I let out a sigh, letting the stress wash out of my body. Sure, I was going to be sad later, but Albion was right.

"How important was that spell anyway?" my sister asked, wearing a grin on her face that made it clear she was taking some degree of sisterly joy from this.

"It was the spell that would create constructs made of solid magic that would listen to my command," I said, indulging her mock curiosity. She shot me a look as if I had been speaking a foreign langue. "You know, the spell I've been on for the past few years now." Her eyes seemed to light up with realization.

"Oh, you mean the dinosaur spell?" I paused, almost if I had been punched in the gut. Albion let out a snort and chuckle, easily remembering my original intentions for this spell when I was much younger. I let out a groan into my hands, rubbing my face.

"Yes, the 'dinosaur spell'" I admit, still clutching my forehead. I put a lot of time and effort into that spell, and hearing it referred too in such a simple manner was maddening, no matter how accurate the statement was. "How long are you going to be holding that over my head for?"

The only response I got was her sticking out her tongue as I let out a massive sigh. I pray she gets this out of her system in short order. Otherwise, she was going continue on this train for at least a week, if not more.

"So, Albion, what's next on the list of nearly impossible magic stuff? I think it's time for this one to take a bit of a break," I turned inward, ignoring my sister's teasing for the moment.

"I believe you mentioned creating generalized magic circles that could be added to spells to create different effects without changing the base spell," Albion nodded, "I think you stated something about this idea coming from Dungeons and Dragons, of the 3.5 edition."

I frown, thinking back. Now that I thought about it, I never actually played that version of the game.

"You played Pathfinder, as of which Jacob put it, 'the successor to 3.5 and what the fourth edition should have been,'" I nodded, indeed remembering Jacob's thoughts on the game. For a few moments, it made me homesick, remembering the games I used to play and who I played them with. I shook my head to free myself from the feeling, ignoring the fact that those books were currently piled up in my room, without purpose.

"I'll go over them tonight. Start tomorrow, provided other assignments don't pop up," I nodded to myself, mentally checking my worklist. Mostly everything long term was done or nearing completion unless I had forgotten something.

"Are you ignoring me?" my sister break through my thoughts, causing me to look up.

"Maybe," I teased, sticking out my tongue. She let out a chuckle at my childish antics.

"Let's head back inside, it's starting to get a bit chilly," she didn't look cold, and I honestly doubted she was. Kansas was much colder than it was right now, and we both knew she preferred t-shirts and shorts regardless of the weather.

Ultimately, I decided to take the bait. Maybe playing some games would help me take my mind off things. But not before taking a good-natured jab at her.

"Are you getting soft on me? Kansas winters are much colder than this, you know." She lightly punched my shoulder, laughing all the while.

"Soft? That's funny, coming from the man who dresses up like an Eskimo the moment it gets below twenty."

"You mean the only one of us that actually don't want to catch hypothermia, right?"

We continued like that for a few hours, taking quick verbal jabs at one another while we were certain our parents weren't listening. Also, playing games was never a bad thing, even if I was playing with a cheater.

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I was honestly surprised when Issei had once again joined me for lunch. Usually, it would be at least a few days between such events. But he had remained down in the dumps since yesterday evening if what I saw on the way to school was any indication.

I mean, yeah, he seemed to be a bit depressed before finding out he was a pawn, meaning I was missing a certain piece of information. Of course, it could be the whole girlfriend murdered my thing. Did they have therapists in Hell? The Underworld? Whatever, I should honestly try to bring that up with Risa at some point, sooner rather than later.

"So?" I asked as Issei rubbed the back of his head. "What's up?" The brown haired pervert looked a bit sheepish, and a bit on edge. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I was already preparing the spell.

"Uh, I don't think we need the illusion today, actually," Issei's comment took me completely off guard. Issei was coming to me for regular person advice? I swore my brain shut itself down for a few seconds. I stopped myself from muttering like an idiot, putting my hands under my chin.

"Issei, you now have me extremely interested," My posture may have made me look like a villain ripped straight from James Bond, but I was already invested.

"I could probably talk about it with Matsuda and Motohama but, they'd be missing important parts," a frown grew on my face. Did it have something to do with Rias chastising him last night?

"Ok. Please, start at the beginning," I nodded, taking a quick bite out of my muffin, before setting the food down in its wrapper.

"Well, after we went our separate ways, I ran into to someone," Issei continued to rub his head, much more than usual. Still, it was strange how close I was to being involved in all this. "She got lost trying to find the church outside of town so I decided to escort her there."

"Pardon me," I interjected, "but there's a church in this town?" I was more than used to such sights in America, but the fact this was Japan, and this was in Devil territory as well, surprised me. I was ignoring the blatantly obvious, devil getting involved with a holy lady joke. And his whole stupidity in doing so.

"Yeah. A friend of mine's parent's used to work there, but they moved to Great Britain a few years back," Issei explained nodding away. "Anyway, I brought her the Church. She tried to a get me to come inside to thank me, but I didn't."

"Logically speaking, what you did was very unwise," I said, taking his pause as him wanting me to input my own information. Before he could get dejected, however, I continued on. "However, helping her when no-one else would is something she'll remember, and I don't see a need to antagonize the other members of the three during peacetime."

I mutter something under my breath, before throwing up the illusion spell anyway.

"But does she know you were a Devil?" I narrow my eyes. Surprisingly Issei shocks his head side to side.

"No, I don't think so," Issei grinned a bit awkwardly as if he felt guilty about lying to her. I had also realized something. Throughout that short exchange, he hasn't mentioned anything about her physical appearance. I was thankful, no doubt about it, but the fact he didn't mention anything was out of character.

Oh, hell, please don't tell me Issei had a crush on this lady of the Church. I was not willing to play Mercutio to that pair of Romeo and Juliet.

"Issei, you do realize that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, not a romantic blueprint, right?" I shook my head, as Issei sent me a puzzled look. Right, I forgot that Japan wasn't too big on Shakespeare. It was a small mercy that I didn't have to read any more of it, even if when I referenced it, it flew past people's heads. He did seem to get part of it.

"It's not like that!" Issei held his hand up as if surrendering. "I mean, she's cute and all, but it'd be dangerous!" I bit back a sigh, wanting to push further and knowing I honestly shouldn't. At least he realized it was stupid to get involved with her.

"She does have a Sacred Gear though," I froze in place. Dead on the spot. That was not good, not good at all.

"It's not like it's dangerous or anything. All it can do is heal," Issei panicked, clearly noticing my face of mute horror.

"Albion?" I turned inward, and he sensed the intent behind my question, thankfully.

"Healing based Sacred Gears are rare and extremely valuable. It's impossible to identify based on what we know, but any group that possesses one will certainly have a leg up in combat," Albion's voice rumbled. "You are concerned that the fallen will make a play towards this one as well?"

"Yes," I mutter aloud, taking Issei somewhat by surprise.

"Eh? Yes, what?" Issei stared at me, and this time, it was my turn to rub the back of my head out of embarrassment.

"Sorry, I was talking with Albion for a few seconds," I grinning slightly, before forcing my face into a more serious expression. "I'm concerned about the group of fallen that's been a pain in our side might try to go after her as well."

Issei's reaction was interesting by itself. His face contorted and twisted, emotions flying by at a mile a minute. Ultimately, it settled on defeat. I couldn't truly hide my shock at the changes in expression. For a person I wrote off as a pervert, he had more emotional depth than I first thought. If he was this protective of someone he barely knew from across battle lines, hurting his friends might prove to be a quite a horrifying sight.

"But I can't go near the Church, even if Rias hadn't told me so," Issei looked down at his feet. "As a devil, there's nothing I can really do."

"That may be, but I'm more than capable of trying to keep an eye on things," I grinned, a light dawning in Issei's face. As a human, I can get close and possibly even enter the Church. Sure, the last part was risky, but it would be nice to know if I still could.

"Really? You would do that?" the pervert sounded surprised at my offer, eyes already misting up.

"I have more than a few reasons, like how I still ill at ease with them still going around and using having zero knowledge on them. And the fact if she is working at the church that is in the middle of Devil territory, likely means that she's here by Rias and Sona's permission. A diplomat, if you will. If something were to happen to her, it would reflect badly on the two of them, to say the least," I explained. Even if, again, I didn't want to get involved in the supernatural, the sooner I didn't have to worry about the feathery killers running about, the better.

"But, what about the books you needed to write?" Issei gasped, realizing that I had been told to finish those beforehand. I bit back a yawn, hardly the first of today. Issei seemed to realize it, eyes going wide. "Did you already finish it already?"

"Finished the first one last night. Set up the rest with the copier. I should be able to hand it over tomorrow. It's honestly finished by now though," This time, I wasn't able to stop myself from yawning, leading whatever came next into some form of garbled mess. "Work must be completed before play can be had."

"How are you even doing that?" Issei asked, before slumping over somewhat realizing the answer to is own question. "Let me guess, magic." I shot him a thumbs up, smiling. Sure, it had been a bit complicated to set up, but it was working just fine. Or, at least, it should be. If not, I would just have to copy it by hand again, which was only time-consuming.

I just hoped it didn't come to that.

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I would have done what Issei had requested of me one I had managed to clear the clubhouse for the day. Plans had already begun to take root in my mind. Stealth was out by default. My illusion spells only had any real effect against non-magical people so I would easily be picked up on. And I also didn't want to be too straightforward. No kicking down the doors time around.

However, Rais had other plans, wanting me to go with Issei to one of his, well, contracts. She said something about becoming more knowledgeable about how Devil's typically deal with mortals. I had to clear it with my parents, of course. They weren't exactly too happy, but I had their permission. And Rias having a good chuckle about how much I listen to them.

She made an offer to help me if they ever said no. I just pointed out that doing so would betray the trust they placed in me, so Rias let it slide. Once the sun had gone down, Issei and I were off. Him on his bike, a simple thing, while I decided to indulge a little. Divine Dividing's wings were more than enough to let me keep up with a speeding devil on a bike.

"Those things let you fly?" Issei shouted at me from below. I laugh, doing a barrel roll mid-flight, before evening out again.

"Yeah! You should be able to as well, with those devil wings of yours," Oh, how I missed doing this. I enjoyed, no revealed in this feeling. I liked to think Issei's jaw hit the floor again, but I really couldn't see from my angle.

The house he came to a stop at was fairly large in size. It looked like a nice place to live, honestly. I dispelled my illusion as my wings faded, tapping lightly to the ground. Everything looked normal, save for one, small detail. The front door was open, despite it being nighttime. Issei took a step forward as if to enter the house, as I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Issei, this might be a crime scene or something," I said, a feeling sinking in my gut. He nodded, his body seeming extremely weakened all of a sudden. I nearly put in 911, before realizing I was in Japan, not America, and began to put in Japan's emergency number instead. However, I did so, I frowned.

Something was wrong here, beyond that. Rias had sent Issei here for a contract. But now there didn't appear to be that sender present. Of course, this could be a mundane break in, but what exactly were the odds of that? Kouh was a good town, and I didn't like believing in coincidences. Especially ones with magic involved like this.

Ultimately, I went to my contacts list, quickly fishing out Rias's number, and pressing call. It didn't even get a chance to ring one time fully before it was picked up.

"Hello, this is Rias speaking," even across the line, I could tell she was a bit concerned.

"This is James. Rias, I think there might be a bit of a problem here," I said, trying to keep my own unease out of my voice. I tried to take in what I could, absorbing the scene. Everything seemed to be in good shape. The door didn't appear to be kicked in, and as far as I could tell, there weren't any signs of violence.

"The door's open and there doesn't seem to be anyone here," I continued, looking for any sign that this was mundane, and not at all related to the supernatural. "And Issei seems to be freaking out at the moment."

"I'll gather everyone up. We'll be there as soon as we can, "I heard movement over the line, as her voice became more stern "I want you two to look into it, but if anything appears dangerous, vacate the area immediately, understood?"

"Understood," I repeated into the lin, but it had already gone dead.

"Well?" Issei's nervousness was still there, completely unchanged. I bit back a frown. I didn't like those marching orders, but something was in there, standing outside wasn't going to do us much in the way of good anyway. It could make it even more dangerous if the fighting spilled out into the street.

"We are going inside. We do not touch anything, and if we see anything out of the ordinary, we get out as quickly as possible," I said, taking the first step into the hallway. Issei had removed his shoes in all politeness, while I kept mine on. I could see lights at the end of the hall, faint and flickering as if produced by candles.

Was the costumer sleeping and simply left their door ajar? My eyes flicked bad to Issei, who continued look like he was about to be jumped by some type of horror monster, despite his completely silent footfalls. If Issei was this worked up over something, then it would be best to keep up my guard.

I pushed open the door slowly, peeking inside the room, before stepping through, Issei right behind me. Table, a sofa, a chair, a lamp, a few candles, lit and flickering, and a television. It looked like a nice, normal, living room.

That thought was shattered after Issei let out a gasp. I turned my head, looking at where he was staring. It took all but a glance for bile to start rising out of my throat. I turn my head away as Issei lets loose his stomach, vomiting on the floor, nearly causing me to do the same. I turn my thoughts away from the crucified body, trying to avoid thinking about it.

I wanted to mutter something, anything, under my breath. But I'm pretty sure that fits Rias's description well enough. One didn't need to read the message written in blood. It was very clear about how it wanted us gone.

"Issei, we are leaving!" I shouted, my body operating on instinct, trying to remember the layout on the way in. I grabbed Issei's arm as he gasped for air, using the strength of my right to quickly if somewhat painfully, get him back on his feet. In my left, a defensive spell flashed into existence.

I began pulling him towards the door, only for it to swing open. He was a man, a priest of some sort based on the robes he wore. I felt Issei step back behind me, as I let go of his arm.

"Issei, stay behind me," I mutter, this time in Japanese. Hopefully, this guy didn't understand a word I was saying. He looked like was out of town, white hair and all that. I raised my right arm, now free, two circles appearing above my hand, pointed directly at the priest.

"You so much as take a step forward, I will electrocute you," I threatened, also bluffing at the same time. The last thing I wanted was to set the house ablaze. It didn't take long to put two and two together. If we were looking for that poor man's killer than he was directly in front of us. The maddening grin on his face, the glint in his eye, as if he was happy that he thought there would be more killing before the night is done.

"A human-kun and a Devil-kun! I didn't think I'd have so many people to punish tonight!" he laughed as if he had some type of divine revelation from a none to friendly god. I kept myself positioned between the insane priest and Issei, biting back the urge to punch this man in the face while he was still stupidly within range.

"Issei, I'm going to give you an opening. Make a break for it as soon as you can. I'll be fine," I continued, not taking my eyes off the lunatic for a second.

"Hey! Didn't you know it's rude to ignore someone when they are talking to you?" if I could kill a man just by looking at them, his eyes would have been burned out, followed by whatever he called a brain.

"I'm Freed Zelzan, and I'm from a certain organization of Exorcists," the now identified and self-proclaimed exorcist laughed.

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England," I snapped, taking the wind clean out of his monologue sail. "I'm pretty sure the Church doesn't knowingly employ sociopaths like yourself, so do yourself a favor and tell us who you're really working for."

There were two outcomes I really wanted out of this. The first was that he attacked me in a fit of rage and anger, or him spilling the beans. Really, either one worked just fine for me, so long is it took his attention away from Issei. Being one of the two of us that wasn't vulnerable to holy energy, it made sense for me to hold the line.

He stared at me for a few seconds, shocked by either my defiance or for calling him a loon. Then he began to laugh, akin to that of the shrieking of a hyena.

"You have some balls on you human-kun, but I'll let you in on a little something. Relying on Devil's makes no longer a human!" a bladeless hilt extended from his sleeve, as a blade of pure light exits the blade. I had to stop my inner nerd from leading me to charge forthright then and there, to reclaim the lightsaber away from the lunatic who had no right to wield a weapon of the Jedi.

"I don't even need my gun to kill you! Now die!" He raised the blade with both hands, darting forward to bring it down in a bisecting strike. I smirked and activated the spell in my hand. Freed pivoted, expecting a lightning bolt or some other spell from my threat beforehand. Instead, his death strike was stopped, a claw of near solid lightning blocking the strike.

I let the defensive spell go, quickly replacing it with another, before making a grab at the madman while he was still off balance. He managed to dart backward, landing closer to the door. His hand reached slowly towards pocket, likely where the gun was stored.

Meant to be used against devils or not, a gun was a gun, and there was no way I was letting him bring a firearm into this. I pushed forward, aiming a minor shock spell near his ear. His eyes tracked the spell perfectly, following it past his face as he rotated slightly.

Lightning met blade in a shower of sparks, my eyes burning into his own. He reached towards his pockets once again, and this time, I managed to grab his arm, locking it in place.

"Release! Static!" I declared, smirking as I awaited Freed to tumble to the floor, slowly vanishing as nothing happened to the lunatic. Instead, he did nothing but laugh and howl.

"I never thought what that fat priest told me about his bracelet was true, but I'm certainly glad I took it off his corpse!" his grin was ugly, something I'd expect to see out of some slasher movie.

Well, if that wasn't going to work, then I might as well not waste the opportunity.

"Divide," I heard Issei gasp behind me, as the resistance I had faced from his blade lessened. Half his strength and speed added itself to my own. I watch Freed's face twist into something akin to surprise, maybe fear, if his twisted mind could comprehend such emotions.

"Then!" I shouted, throwing the arm being crushed in my grip aside, to prevent him from going to his firearm. "I cast fist!" My left hand connected with his face, his nose giving a satisfying crunch as he was knocked through the doorway behind him, landing on his back with a dull thump.

I honestly hoped the blow had knocked him out, or at the least, taken away his will to continue this, but the moment I began to step forward, he started laughing again, grating on my nerves with his cackling.

"I'll have to admit, that was pretty impressive, human-kun," Freed laughed and laughed, only cementing his complete lack of sanity. "However, you made one fatal error in all this." Even while slowed, he had managed to pull his gun without me noticing. I raised my left hand, preparing to throw up a defense to the best of my abilities. A second later, behind me, Issei screamed. I did what was probably the stupidest thing I could have done. My head whipped around, seeing Issei on his knees, bleeding from a bullet hole in his leg.

There wasn't a gunshot! No indication that a round had been fired at all! Freed took advantage of my distracted state, rushing at me with both weapons at once. I blocked the swipe from his sword, knocking his hand with the gun away from my body. Issei let out another scream of pain, no doubt from another gunshot.

"Your fight is with me, you sadistic stain!" I shouted, trying to keep his attention on me and me alone. I didn't think it worked, the man still grinning like mad. I needed to disarm him as quickly as possible. Before he actually killed Issei!

My eyes flicked back, trying to stay aware of where Issei was in relation to myself. That's what allowed me to see the source of another scream, this time much more feminine in sound. Oh, please, don't tell me the poor mans wife just came home to see all this.

"Ah, Asia-chan, such a delightful scream. Is this your first time seeing a corpse?" Freed laughed, taking joy in the small girl's suffering. And wasn't Asia the name of the girl Issei met. Oh, hell no, this was becoming a bigger and bigger mess with each passing second.

But I sure wasn't going to waste the advantage. Dispelling my lightning claw, I grabbed both his arms, yanking him forward and off balance.

"What are you trying to do, hug me to death?" the white-haired lunatic taunted, before noticing my head ramming into his skull. This time, his nose didn't crunch, instead, it sounded like a tomato splattering against the ground.

We both staggered back, me from the improper headbutt technique, him from the fact his nose was no bleeding profusely. Even in my somewhat dazed state, I could hear clattering against the wooden floor as the gun was dropped, even if it took my brain a few seconds to process what that meant.

"What is with you and breaking people's noses?" Freed snarled, clutching his nose, trying to stop the bleeding as best he could. I glared back at him.

"I do not want to hear anything from the man who creams his own robes whenever he murders someone," I snap back, recasting my lightning claw as I spoke, before raising it so it pointed at his chest. "You are going to drop that sword, right now, and put your hands where I can see them. I'm giving you one final chance to surrender."

There was an unspoken threat that I left hanging in the air. He stared at me, before he began to laugh as if I had told him the funniest joke he had heard in a long time.

"Really? They somehow think you managed to kill her? They must be stupider than I thought!" He howled back in laughter, once again showing complete and utter disregard for the fact this still was a fight. But his words did cause me to pause, and I couldn't stop myself from frowning. How would a member of the Church know that, let alone one that was likely brought here recently?

"So, you're working for the fallen, then," I said, hoping to get the insane man to reveal more information. I mean, his words all but confirmed it for me. The only thing anyone believed me to have killed was the fallen angel that had attacked me, and it's not like many people knew about that, let alone from the Church.

Which was freaking great. A rouge exorcist with a murder fetish running around and the only ones holding the leash were a group that made it blatantly clear they had no interest in human life. Nothing wrong with that no, not at all.

Plus, there was the girl involved now. She was working for this psycho, reluctantly or not. Meaning she wasn't actually from the church. What a mess. I would like to question her after this but Freed still needed to be dealt with first. Issei did say she was harmless, so I hoped his judgment was right.

I spared Issei a glance out of the corner of my eye, and what I saw surprised me. Asia had a light emerald glow admitting from her hands, holding them over the bloodied parts of his leg. She was healing him? My brain caught on a snag, trying to process what was happening before me.

"Are you really healing that devil?" Freed sneered, using my moment of distraction to try and dart around me. "Do you have shit for brains?" the light in her hands flickered for a split second as if she was processing the information and it refused to make it's way through.

It was enough to snap me out of it, and with a snarl, I kicked at his legs. My foot connected with his shine, knocking him forward as his face ate the carpet. Freed swore on the way down, as I stepped onto his back, pinning him to the ground. His legs flailed, struggling to find some form of leverage to knock me off.

He tried to push himself up with his strength. Another divide and any attempt at that was squashed like a bug.

His reverse handed slash was what caught me off guard, the blade of light missing my nose by a hair, the sudden flash blinding me for a moment, causing me to step back from my position, rubbing the light out of my eyes.

"Get out of my way or die!" I heard Freed bellow, as I tried to pin down the source of the noise. Damnit, I couldn't let that happen!

"No!" Asia shouted, but it was Issei was the one who screamed. As my vision returned, what I saw shocked me. Issei had managed to pull himself up, meeting the blade of light with Boosted Gear. Even from where I stood, I could hear the armor being burned away. I couldn't imagine what I felt like, but Issei was standing, defending the much smaller girl.

I took advantage, yanking away one of Freed's arms away from his sword, helping relieve the stain on Issei for a split second. Before my elbow crashed into the side of the lunatic priest's skull.

Freed skidded to the side, and when he came to stop, he looked visibly staggered. And this time, his mouth stayed shut. Good. Maybe this time he'd get a concussion. But that appeared to be too much to hope for, as he raised his sword again. I released both lightning claw spells letting lightning arc around my fingers like a long, sharp glove. But before he could make a move, I felt a sudden breeze, as Freed was sent flying across the room.

"Kiba!" I grinned, recognizing the blond hair anywhere. Thank goodness, the cavalry had finally arrived! I let both spells fizzle out, the priest seeming to be out of the fight for the moment. I didn't take my eyes off the corner for a moment though. He had already proven extremely resilient, and slippery, even if I hadn't used any magic against him.

He gave me a swift nod, acknowledging my presence, as I got the scope of exactly who Rias had brought with her. When she said everyone, she hadn't been kidding. Akeno and Koneko were present as well, each equally ready to fight. Rias stood over Issei as Asia continued to heal his wounds. I could have sworn she was a bit shocked, if pleased, by what was happening.

"What happened here?" she turned to me, once she had finished speaking to Issei. What was once concern and compassion had been replaced with rage, radiating off her in waves, though it wasn't directed at me.

"We entered, found this," I pointed at the wall, the body still nailed in place. "I grabbed Issei, tried to escape. He intercepted us before we could leave. I tried to create an opening for Issei to escape. I failed, he shot Issei to get to me, she healed he, then you got here," I jabbed my finger to the corner were Freed appeared to be unconscious, letting out a sigh out of relief.

"I see," Rias nodded, her rage appearing to increase by the second. However, before she could continue, Akeno interrupted.

"Buchou, there seems to be Fallen Angels heading towards this house!" I scowled. Oh, this just had to keep on escalating. Issei was hurt, even with a healer, and we were stuck indoors. In a suburb.

Rias's face reflected my own for a moment before a sigh of frustration leaves her mouth.

"Akeno, we'll return to our headquarters. Prepare for teleportation," she ordered, lowering her hand, letting the energy that was building up die.

"Yes, Buchou," Akeno nodded, as energy began to fill the air. Issei's eyes widened as if realizing the implications of her statement. Before he could say anything, Rias cut him off.

"Yes, she can come along, if that is what she wishes," I could have sworn Asia's own eyes grew as well, seemingly shocked by the amount of goodwill coming from a race she was likely raised to hate, even though it felt like it was impossible for her to hate anything.

"Uh, yes," she stammered, avoiding eye contact with Rias. "Thank you for your kindness." Rias nodded, seemingly somewhat pleased about this development. However, beyond the heartwarming display, I was more interested in Akeno's spellcraft. Teleportation magic was an interest of mine, despite its numerous and inherent risks. Devil's likely had a way to make it much safer, or it wouldn't be deployed in the first place.

Freed had somehow managed to recover during that time, letting out a wordless scream as he charged at us. I raised both my hands, readying a spell to knock him back, but it was Koneko who dealt with the issue. The last thing I saw before we returned to the safety of the clubhouse was Freed barely cutting a coach in half.

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Sorry this wasn't out sooner. I had finals and all sorts of other fun stuff.


	6. Chapter 6

Floorboards creaked as I paced back and forth at the clubhouse. Adrenaline had wormed it's way out of my system, only for it to be replaced with unease and my own internal panic. Sure, Freed wasn't going to be in fighting shape any time soon, but the moment he was, he'd likely be out for blood. And I wouldn't be hard to find, and from there, who knew where his twisted mind would go?

I wanted to shout, scream, and punch something, all at once, but I bit it down. Getting mad and taking it out on people around me wasn't going to solve the problem. Rias was already beating herself up over the issue, with her own mouth in a slight frown, eyebrows locked together.

Still, we needed to do something. As far as I was concerned, politics could fly out a window. The Fallen Angels were now leading to attacks on innocent people, and so long as they remained in town, my family, Issei and his family, and Asia were all at risk, alongside anyone summoning devils.

I was tempted to just march over to that church and put an end to this as swiftly as possible. A single full powered spell would be all it took to leave that place a smoldering crater.

I took a deep breath, trying quickly to regain control of my emotions. Running off on my own to do something stupid wasn't going to help either. I stopped my pacing, focusing on my breathing. We had Asia, a girl they clearly wanted for something, two Longinus users, and four powerful and skilled devils, one of which had a Scared Gear in his own right.

We had a power advantage, and no small one, either. While I doubted they would take us 'capturing' Asia, without some form of retaliatory action, in turn, I couldn't imagine what that might be. I hoped they might just cut their losses, be done with this venture that was clearly costing them. I imagined there would be a point where they simply wouldn't be able to maintain some form of political excuse.

Speaking of that, how did this thing with Asia work anyway? From what I understood, she was a member of the Church, then she was working for the Fallen, and now she's working for us? Did the Fallen blackmail her into this or something? Would we have to hand her back over to the Church? Did her coming with us count as her changing sides? Did she count as a prisoner or something?

My eyes twitched over to where the girl sat. I had my concerns about how she was holding up. She hadn't moved much, appearing to be more interested in her feet than making eye contact with anyone besides Issei, including me, the only other human in the room. Well, she wouldn't keep his eye contact for long either, but she seemed to be using him as some form of a shield, or even a means to comfort herself.

The silence wasn't likely to do her any favors either. Surrounded by people she was trained to hate and fear at likely a very young age, and nobody saying anything at all would likely intimidate her even more. I doubted anyone would hurt her, especially now, but she didn't know that. Even though I could swear, scouts honor, that Akeno was giving the two a weird look that I could barely catch out of the corner of my eye.

If it wasn't for the Stray Devil, I wouldn't be too concerned. Maybe she would tease the two a bit, but that would be the end of it. But given that development, I could only imagine the horrifying things that come from both of them hanging out.

"So, how are you holding up?" I asked, finally breaking the silence and my thought process before it went into the abyss. Asia let out a small noise of surprise, nearly jolting forward as if struck by lightning. Akeno let out a light chuckle, while Kiba simply smiled, and I could feel the tension beginning to melt away. It was still at the back of my mind, but it was lessened.

"I'm fine, thank you," she stammered out, once she got over her surprise. Very polite for someone so young. How old exactly was she, anyway? A rude question, but she didn't look much older than Kekeno. Then again, given how the white-haired girl was as old as my sister, somehow, appearances could be deceiving.

The sudden spike in activity managed to bring Rias out of her own thoughts, the redhead letting out a deep sigh. It drew our attention like moths to a flame, everyone in the room focusing in on her.

"We've all had a long day," she started, and I could almost hear the weight on her voice. And I wasn't going to disagree with the statement, either, even if there wasn't school tomorrow. "We will meet up after school to discuss our next move."

As much as dividing ourselves was a bad idea, I doubted the enemy would come looking for a fight anytime soon. Asia none withstanding, but what exactly could they do? Pretty sure kidnapping her from them would be another tick on the political box they really couldn't afford. Besides, it was only for a day, and Issei's house wasn't too far. I could escort him home, throw up some more wards, and be now my way.

What were we going to do with Asia, though? Guest or not, Devil territory or not, I doubted leaving her overnight at the clubhouse was an option. Of course, I wasn't sure that she trusted anyone here besides Issei either. But seriously, honestly, was that the best idea?

I honestly couldn't believe I was thinking that it actually was. I don't think I'd heard him make a single perverted comment around her, let alone about her. He was acting, dare I say it, like a gentleman, if not a big brother to her. Maybe being around her would do him some good.

The only thing I had in common with her was that I was human. Sure, I may have fought to protect her, in a loose sense, but it was Issei that took a blow meant to kill her. And she truly seemed to like him, her first reaction being to heal him, no questions asked. My eyes flickered between the two from my position behind the coach, hoping that someone would get what I was trying to be subtle about.

I think Rias did understand my hint as she approached, bending over slightly to bring herself to Asia's eye level. Or maybe she was thinking the same thing I was.

"I'm sorry, but right now, we don't have many places for you to stay. Would you like to come to stay with me?" the blonde seemed to deflate, "Or, would you like to stay with Issei?"

Any spirit she might have lost has returned tenfold. I was surprised she wasn't glowing like the sun. Issei seemed a bit surprised, stammering. Akeno simply chuckled, and I shook my head. If nothing else, this was going to be amusing. Parental shenanigans aside, things shouldn't be too hard here on out.

I mean, it shouldn't take too much convincing right?

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I was a bit surprised that Rias didn't use the teleporter to bring us into the ballpark of Issei's house, but as it turns out, taking extra's along for the ride, especially when they were human, was taxing. It didn't really make much sense, but we had to go on foot. I was more than a bit paranoid the whole journey, though.

After what had happened, it felt like it was a bad idea to be out in the open. Maybe not all the adrenaline had left my system yet. Rias was, thankfully much calmer than I was, which helped keep the worst of my panic at bay. I mean, two Longinus wielders and a high-class Devil. Only an idiot would launch an attack against those odds.

It still didn't help that I felt like we were being watched. I didn't know by who, or by what, but it was probably nothing, even if it didn't feel like it. Things were too quiet, even for this time of night. Even if Rias was using a spell to prevent us from being detected, it still felt wrong. Tactically speaking, our best form of defense for her was secrecy. If they didn't know where she was, then nothing bad could happen to her.

We made decent enough time to Issei house, all things considered. I quickly began my work while Rias, Issei, and Asia made their way inside. Sure, it probably wasn't my best work, but I didn't have to much time, and the sooner I was out of their yard, the better. Don't want the neighbor's asking questions about why there was a strange man creating flying circles in their front yard.

Did Neighbor's in Japan even ask questions like that? There was an unspoken rule of politeness, but even that might warrant questions right? I mentally shrugged getting along with my work. It took a good fifteen minutes before I was pleased with my work. Long enough for Rias herself to talk Issei's parents into letting Asia stay, alongside with offering to escort me home.

I politely declined. My house wasn't far away, so I would be home fairly swiftly. As I finished my work, I felt gears beginning to turn in my mind. Idea's flickered in and out of existence, as I muttered to myself under my breath.

It could work. Maybe not for devils, but for a human like me, maybe. A very large maybe, and I was certainly out of my field of experience, but on paper it made sense. Practically, well, that would be hard to test, and I might need some books on how light magic actually worked. Because if it worked as regular light did, then there might be a defensive solution after all.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Risa and Sona said they controlled the school, I figured it was indirectly, from the shadows, influencing things, not directly, like somehow making Asia an exchange student overnight. But at this point, I really shouldn't be too surprised. Still, seeing her at school already was quite a surprise.

Speaking of which, Asia didn't look entirely comfortable in the short skirt of the Kouh Academy uniform, but she'd pretty much won over most of the entire school already. My sister had nearly entered a state ripped straight of an old cartoon. The one with the Yeti and the rabbit being called George. Another reason I was happy that she was living with Issei because my sister might freak her out before she got the cuteness out of her system.

I felt bad for Issei though. The poor man nearly got mobbed by nearly half the school, a rare combination of jealous guys and angry girls. Mercifully, Asia was able to defuse the situation before it required interference.

Then came the biggest surprise of all. Asia was actually the same age as the two of us. The same year, same room. Ok, the last part wasn't surprising. She didn't know any Japanese, while Issei had the power of Language on his side, allowing him to be an extremely effect translator. For me, I could go between Japanese and English fairly well, and English appeared to be a second language for her.

Remarkably clever. I'd almost say too clever, but then I remember who exactly I'm dealing with here. Still, if it wasn't for the teachers, things would have been much crazier. I wasn't entirely sure it was possible to Issei to be disliked by the student body any more than he had been before, but he had accomplished it. Maybe this wasn't as good of an idea as I thought. Having Asia stick extremely close to him probably wasn't helping matters, either. Not that she was giving him a choice in that department.

Well, the last two members of the perverted trio weren't happy about it, and that was putting things mildly. I was pretty sure I saw them giving Issei some version of a death glare when he wasn't looking. Jealousy was an ugly thing, but come on, would it kill you to be proud of the guy for finally getting a person potentially romantically interested in him?

Then there was her. Kiryuu Aika Or as I liked to call her, God's vengeance against guys for the perverted trio existing. Out of everyone, she picked up on Asia's potential crush the fastest, and if it wasn't for the language barrier, the former nun would likely be reduced to a blushing trainwreck.

Today was shaping up to one of complete pandemonium, seeing as we weren't even halfway through school yet. The only good news was that I had managed to finish getting the spellbooks together to give to their respective owners, and hopefully, I'd be able to get ahold of Sona despite the chaos.

I'd already begun making sketches for what I wanted to happen. Sure, it was only on paper, and I really had no form of actual research on what I needed to do, which was why I was going to Sona. I'd be surprised if Devil's hadn't sunk time into trying to find some form of light protection. If I could get a hold of that research, I might be able to make something that worked for humans. Hopefully.

Personally, having any degree of high hopes for such a project would be foolish. This was an issue that Devil's had faced for a very long time, and such information would likely be closely guarded. To hand those notes over to someone, even copies of that data, even if they were working for you, might actually be a bit much. Especially when greater minds had likely worked on such a project.

Hell, the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Devil's might not be able to defend themselves against light based attacked because it was their fatal flaw. Magic was tied so deeply to them, that it simply not be possible for them to magically defend against it. On paper, it made sense. But it wasn't going to be something I said out loud, though. Or wanted to test firsthand.

Ultimately, I decided that during lunch was the best to time to at least put my request on the table. As much as I didn't like leaving Issei to the masses, Kiba and Soji should be able to handle things. Things couldn't get that far out of hand, right?

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Kaichou?" I asked, knocking on the door to the student council room. Was she even in while school was in season? Maybe I should have thought a bit more about this…

"Enter," Sona's voice broke its way through my thoughts. As stern and no-nonsense as ever.

I opened the door, entering the decently sized office. It felt a lot less busy without the rest of the student council president, and a whole lot less cramped. Actually, it felt a bit more open, without more than a dozen people running around.

"May I ask you something?" I asked, trying to be polite. Sona simply nodded as I took a seat in one of the small chairs in front of her large desk. She nodded as if to push me forwards.

"Do you have any notes of anti-light defense spells that I might be able to borrow?" I tried to put it as best I could, in a way that wouldn't likely end up with me being thrown out.

"Now that is a very strange request," Sona's voice was unreadable, as was her facial expression. One of her eyebrows was slightly raised, but that was all. "I must ask why do you want such information."

"I had an idea that light magic used by Angels and exorcists works like regular light. Like how light bullets still retain light's speed, for example. If this is true, then it might be possible refract it by using a prism, breaking it down into something much weaker, like how light inside a prism gets broken down into different colors," I explained, taking a deep breath at the end to refill my lungs. Sona's eyes seemed to narrow slightly.

"That is an interesting idea, yes. However, I must inform you that you aren't the first to come up with such a plan," I frowned at what Sona was saying. Of course, someone would have tried that long before I even had the idea. I wasn't making a massive logical jump.

"Unless you think it could work for humans," Sona continued, causing me to jump in surprise. How did she come to that line of conclusion?

"I mean it's possible," I stammered, slightly on edge by her statement. "Human's don't have a vulnerability to light, so depending what the spell did, it could be able to protect one."

Sona stared at me as if trying to dig her way through my brain. I did my best to make sure my facial expression remained unreadable and I was likely failing, too.

"I can make no promises about such a thing. In fact, I doubt I will be able to get any information on the project, let alone anything you might find useful," Sona finally said, much to my relief. "But I will do everything in my power to do."

"Thank you," I bowed slightly. Sure it was more of me tipping my head, but it was the thought that counted. "That means a lot to me." Sure, it was by no means a guarantee, and it wasn't going to be coming anytime soon, but it was better than nothing. I was honestly expecting to be turned down, I wasn't going to lie.

"Before you go," Sona spoke up as I made my way toward the door. My head whipped around, back to the desk. "I'd like to take a look at the spellbook you brought. Oh, right, might as well do that while I was here. No sense in pushing that off till later in the day.

I reached into my backpack, pulling out a copy of the notebook, placing it down gently on the desk, before booking it. I had to hurry before I went today without lunch!

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Sona watched as James left, tempted to warn him about running in the halls. She looked down at the notebook, somewhat disappointed. Isolated indeed, if he didn't know about the variety of magical stores throughout town. It would be well if she informed him, but that would have to wait.

Sona had no shame admitting she was extremely curious on the subject of James. The boy had extremely high magical potential. But she could hardly detect any of it, and it was the same with Rias. Something was suppressing it, and it was hard to pinpoint what. While his wards were impressive, and could somewhat disrupt magic and make it harder to detect, it couldn't be the solution.

That was part of the reason she wanted to see his spells and what they could do. He had already proven to be creative, if not close to borderline ingenious, with Lightning Mine being creation no novice had the ability to pull off. In fact, spellcrafting for someone so limited would be dangerous.

Even the most simple of spells had nearly a page dedicated to it, each complete in detail that surprised her. It looked less like a magician who'd just started and more like an actual spellbook, or even some form of scientific paper. And he admitted beforehand that he cut out much of his own personal thoughts and theories.

It was put together with a level of professionalism that surprised her, given James's attitude. Sure, more than a few spells were simply him reinventing the wheel, but even those spells had something different about them compared to their more common variations. Others were original, to her knowledge, while some were pretty much intentionally modified versions of already existing spells.

Still, it didn't give her the information she wanted. She'd have to experiment later with a few of his wards and illusions, but none of them seemed like they'd be accomplishing what she was seeing. Or there was something else going on. James wasn't the best liar, so she doubted it was something even he was aware. Then there was a simple fact that his own spellbook drove home. James had a combination of talent and potential that would be considered one in a million, and that was if he came from a family of mages.

His parent's had to know more than they were letting on. But that didn't make sense either. All records she could dig up showed the same thing. Regular humans leading regular human lives. The fact there was anything to find was surprising enough. It wouldn't be impossible for James to be the lucky offshoot of two individuals from mage families that didn't have any potential.

Sona's frown grew at a troubling thought. Regular humans wouldn't have anything to find in any Devil data banks. Politicians and other important figures, sure, but two relatively unknown individuals wouldn't have had anything worthy of note. So why would there be space allotted to two regular humans in the first place?

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The rest of the day went by swiftly enough. Things had calmed down after lunch a little bit. If this were an American High School, everything would have been worse. One of the strange differences I never quite understood but was never the less now extremely grateful for, was that we didn't move around to different classes, but rather, the teachers came to us.

Guarding Issei between classes before getting to my own would have been a massive pain, and depending on classroom placement, impossible. Though I had to admit I was slightly disappointed about not being able to fight my way through a crowd of people with a trombone, but I digress.

It took a few minutes for Kiba and me to pull them away from the crowd. If I found out the poor girl already had a fan club, I wouldn't be too surprised. Same if Issei voodoo dolls started popping up. Now that I thought about it, I should probably keep an eye out for that. This being a Devil owned town and all that, someone might actually find something to help make one, and while I personally knew nothing about how to use such magic, I'd gotten my hands on enough stories to know that it wouldn't be good.

I might have a book on it somewhere. But that was a future project, and a major what if.

"So, Asia, how was your day?" Kiba's voice broke me out of my thoughts as we made our way to the clubhouse. My eyes flicked around me, during my head slightly to make sure we weren't being followed. I suppose I was still being a bit paranoid, but I wasn't taking chances.

"It was nice. A bit stressful, but nice," Asia seemed in a much brighter mood, compared to yesterday. She smiled lightly, a very genuine smile that could cause even a grown man to break down and weep. Was this how she normally was? A bright and happy ball of sunshine?

Because looking at her right now was stabbing me in my big brother instinct place. The part of the brain that goes 'oh, so you made my younger sibling cry? Ok, then I'll punch you in the face'.

Kiba looked at the two of us, with Asia quickly following his gaze.

"The usual for me, for the most part," I lied. If Asia hadn't picked up on it, I certainly wasn't going to be the one to point out the near murderous crowds.

"It was nice," Issei rubbed the back of his head. The smile of glee on Asia's face made me feel bad about lying to her almost immediately, but I pushed down the feeling. Didn't need to add anything else to the amount of stress she likely had going on. Most certainly any Issei related stress.

We were the first to make it into the clubhouse, and I finally started to relax. How strange it was. Never thought I'd feel that this place was some form of safe house, at least compared to my own home. I'd rather be there, but still, the fact I was beginning to feel safe around Devils was a bit of a concerning thought.

I frowned, as my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I wasn't expecting any calls. My frown only grew as I saw the name on the screen. Oh, I already had a feeling where this was going. Part of me was tempted to ignore it, but then again, she wasn't likely to stop until she got what she wanted.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to step out and take this," I said, stepping out of the room and into the hall. "Hello," I spoke into the speaker, moving away from the door to discourage eavesdropping.

What I got was a bunch of English gibberish as Lily spoke about a mile a minute. I even pulled my phone away from my ear slightly due to the volume.

"Can you repeat that one more time. Slower. So I can understand you," I muttered, already not assumed. Oh, this was going to leave me with the urge to punch something. That much was certain.

"Is it true that Asia and Issei have been having," the sound of my hand hitting my forehead cut her off as I groaned. Oh, those rumors didn't take long to start spreading. And I wouldn't be surprised if I knew the source, too.

"No. I can tell you with certainty that isn't true," I groaned out, shaking my head with annoyance. If Issei wasn't dense and Asia not shy, that may end up being that way, but I doubt it. Issei, for all his talk of Harem's, was out of his depth. He had no idea how to respond to Asia's attachment to him, while Asia didn't seem to have much of an idea on how to convey her own feelings.

I'm guessing being a nun didn't leave her with a whole lot of romantic exposure period, let alone how to deal with or display such emotions. Then again, I could be reading a bit too far into this.

Still, I almost chuckled at the realization that my sister was possibly jealous of Issei here. Well, there's a thought that I never believed would exist. Then again, I don't think many people would be thinking that anyway. But today kind of threw what was considered normal into a tailspin. Everything would calm down, eventually. At least, it better calm down.

"Look, I don't think Issei actually understands when a girl is crushing on him, and Asia isn't past the making eye contact with crush before averting her gaze yet. I doubt it'll get that far in the future," that, and a few other reasons.

"Fine," I could tell my sister was puffing up her checks, trying to make a fuss over nothing. I didn't want to laugh at her suffering over this, but I couldn't deny it was funny. I'd imagine Rias would be amused by this whole thing as well.

"I'll talk to you later, once we're done here," I said. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long to formulate a plan. I'd much rather not be too late, again. While it wasn't too much, I could already tell my sleep pattern was already being knocked out of alignment. And ideally, that plan wasn't to continue doing nothing.

"Alright, I will talk to you later, then," Lily sighed on the other end of the line. I don't think it was her being lonely, but certainly, hope it wasn't. Maybe something else? I'd have to talk to her about it at some other point. "Bye."

She hung up. I felt a bit of a frown grow on my face. That was strange. We usually go through the, 'I love you', 'I love you too', routine. For her to hang up like that was weird. I made a quick mental note to try and get her to talk about it later.

Koneko had entered the room apparently while I wasn't looking. I really hope she didn't hear anything about my conversation. She didn't seem to respond, so I didn't think so, by trying to read the white hair girl was like trying to read a brick wall. Impossible, and you made yourself look stupid when you tried.

Akeno was next, and without Rias, a bit of a surprise.

"Buchou will be here soon," she said, after closing the door "she had something she wanted to discuss with Kaichou." I frowned. Was it about what I had asked for? Or maybe there was something wrong with the spellbook I'd given her. Oh, I hoped not. Certainly, it couldn't be that. I double checked everything I could think of. Sure, a notebook was unorthodox, but surely, it couldn't cause that much trouble, right?

My spine began to freeze up as I realized Akeno was staring at me. It only took me a few seconds to realize what she wanted. I quickly dug into my backpack, pulling out the third spiral notebook, handing it over quickly.

"Thank you," she smiled politely, though that did little to dispel my unease.

"You're welcome," I nodded in return, doing my best to keep any sign of fear from showing. If anyone could smell it, it would be her. Her little chuckles as she sat down in one of the nearby chairs didn't help. Well, I may or may not have just had a hand in ending the world, good job.

Ok, I was probably overreacting, but after the Stray Devil incident, I didn't think I could blame myself. The amount of glee she took when torturing it disturbed me. Given how we both appeared to use lightning magic as our primary means of attack, I was more than aware of what lightning could do to a person. There was a good reason why I had spells made for incapacitating.

Lightning could kill, and even my weaker and arguably, safer spells, probably weren't as safe as I'd like to think they were. But on the other side of that same coin, it was typically easy to incapacitate with it. Static was ideal for this, and I wouldn't be surprised if Akeno used it for other purposes.

"What was that?" Asia asked suddenly, taking me by surprise. Her eyes seemed a bit wide with wonder as if she hadn't seen anything like that before.

"It's a spellbook," I rubbed the back of my head as Kiba chuckled in his own seat. I don't know what he found so funny.

"Sure doesn't look like one," Issei teased, and I chuckled, laughing at my own lack of traditionalism, and also to cover some of my embarrassment. I mean, if I could find a place that sold blank spellbook's I would have found them already. Besides, it wasn't like hadn't put protective enchantments on them. There wasn't going to be any difference in durability and longevity between the two, I made sure of it.

"You know me, always the guy who doesn't do things traditionally," I grin slightly, still trying to cover for myself. I doubted it was working at the end of the day, but everyone was having a chuckle. Well, besides Koneko, something that should surprise no one.

I kind of enjoyed it. After the events of last night, the normalcy was nice. It wouldn't last, sure. I knew deep down what was going to be discussed today, it would not be about Devil work, contracts, or even training. The moment Rias stepped into the room, it would be time to talk about war.

And indeed we did.

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Issei and Asia were on the verge of checking out a while ago, seemingly fluttering between the waking world and the dreaming world. It was cute, I don't think anyone of us could deny it. But we were focusing on the information Asia had given us. It took me swearing that we would try to avoid killing anyone for her to actually start talking.

She was compassionate enough to defend people who clearly didn't deserve it, and while I don't think Rias really liked it, it did give us the information we needed.

The old church on the outside of town was their base of operations, confirming what we had already expected, with three Fallen Angels, one of which likely tried killing Issei. Combined with maybe a half dozen fallen exorcists, and the enemy force was larger than I expected. If Sona's peerage was also coming with us, we'd easily have them outnumbered, but the way they were planning, that didn't seem like it would be the case.

Without the church, this would have been an easy fight. However, the presence of holy ground changed things. Well, not for me, but certainly everyone else. We couldn't just keep playing defensively, but at the same time, attacking carried a wide range of risks.

Weakening the power of Devil's and having weapons that could easily kill was not something we could overlook. If we could remove that advantage, or force them away from it, much of the risk would be negated. Easier said than done, though. Any force would be reluctant to give up an advantageous position. I frowned, trying to make a mental image in my mind.

They had two separate groups. Three fliers, while everything else was ground based with ranged capacity. Maybe some form of aerial attack? No, that simply wouldn't work, and splitting any of ourselves up was a terrible idea. We were the ones outnumbered, so we would need to stick together.

But being in the air would at least be useful. We could use that to divide the enemy force into two separate chunks, each more manageable than they would be together. Maybe using magic to bombard the place from above? Actually, that just might work. We had the firepower, between Akeno, Rias and myself, to accomplish such a task, and it would force them to give up their advantageous position. We could even batter our way through whatever defenses they put up if they even bothered with such a thing.

Then, once the Fallen were out of the way, we could clean out the rouge exorcists with little issue. Ideally, take Freed prisoner while we were at it. He belonged in a jail cell if nothing else.

"I have an idea," I raised my hand tenitivaly, earning Rias's attention, seeing how this was the first time I'd spoken since the meeting began. She tentatively nodded, a sign I took to continue.

"Instead of striking on land, how about we launch an aerial attack? Bombard the place from above, to try and draw out the Fallen Angels to engage us without backup from the exorcists. Even if they don't try to attack us, the bombardment should remove the church as a factor and soften them up considerably. It's a win-win," I explained, grinning slightly. Rias seemed to be lost in thought, contemplating what I'd just said.

"It could work, but we need a make sure the rest of the town doesn't notice, as well as the church remaining mostly intact," Rias said, as I resisted the urge to smack my face. Of course, how could I forget that! Outskirts or no, everyone is going to notice lightning suddenly decided that a church didn't need to exist anymore. Illusions could work, but I had nothing to cover anything so obvious.

"Illusions could work, but they would take a bit of power to be maintained. We could always use magic to repair the church once we are finished," Kiba offered, and I nodded his direction in thanks. But was it just me, or did the last part seem a bit tense? Rias herself nodded as well.

"That would be worth the discussion. Once everyone is awake, that is," I looked for too the couch to find both Issei and Asia finally out for the count. Koneko looked like she was about to clock out as well.


	7. Chapter 7

I had to admit, while I didn't find Issei the be the mental image of a model student, I'd never once think I'd see him skip class like this. With Asia in tow, no less. I hadn't seen either of them so far today, and given how it was lunch time, it was safe to assume the two wouldn't be showing.

Surely, something bad couldn't have happened. Rais was keeping an eye on things, and I would have been informed otherwise. So what was keeping the two of them? I wasn't going to hand over my notes, which were mostly in English in the first place, without a good reason for why they were skipping.

Though, I doubted the rumor mill's take on the situation, which was already going exactly how one might expect. Firstly, didn't people have better things to do with their time? Secondly, why was what two people may or may not be doing any of their business? If it wasn't for the fact any attempt to slow the wildfire would be like trying to stop a tidal wave with a bucket, or worse, dropping napalm on it, I would have tried to put a stop to it.

Well, if I did find out the source was who I suspected it was. Well, Issei's friendship with them wasn't going to be enough to save them, but I digress. There was probably a reason why they weren't here and Rias would tell me later.

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By the time class had ended we were still missing the two. Rias, seemed somewhat happy, while everyone else didn't seem surprised about the two's absence at all. That was reassuring if only a little bit.

"So," I started, somewhat unsure of how to put it, "do you know where our absentees are?" It wasn't Rias that answered, but Akeno.

"Yes," the black haired devil had a look on her face that was concerning enough in its own right. "It seems Issei has taken Asia out on a date." I could have sworn I heard Koneko mutter something under her breath as Kiba and I locked eyes from across the room, him giving me a reassuring nod.

"A romantic date, or friends ditching school for a day date?" I was not expecting that answer I had been given. Yeah, Asia liked Issei, that was about as clear as day. But as far as I could tell, Issei didn't know this. He could be trying to cheer her up while she took it as a sign of romantic interest. Well, wasn't that just a mess.

"It seems more of the latter rather than the former," Rias spoke, nodding to herself. "I don't entirely approve of him skipping class for this, but she seems to be much happier than she has been since she entered our care." I don't know how much that was saying though. Asia seemed happy most of the time anyway, all things aside. Maybe she just needed a day where she could hang around her crush like a regular teenage girl. It probably wasn't something she ever got to do, to be honest.

Plus, I would not deny that it could be a good influence on Issei. Maybe get his mind out the preverbal gutter, so to speak. Still, I wasn't going to pity the world of hurt he was going to be in tomorrow, if only because of the rumor mill.

"I'll have my familiar keep an eye on them in the meantime," Rias continued, looking at each of us, "For now, let's continue where we left off." The redhead looked towards me as if to ask to explain the logic behind my idea.

"The enemy has three advantages over us. Numbers. Home field advantage. Lastly and most dangerously, Holy Ground. All of these treats, one way or another adds a force multiplier against us. These advantages must be either accounted for or removed from the enemies possession entirely," I paused for air, before continuing to speak. "By using magic to strike from above the church, we eliminate their numbers advantage, can destroy the advantage of holy ground, and turn their advantageous position against them. Minimal risk, maximum reward."

I took a step back, conceding the floor back to Rias, as the crimson haired devil nodded.

"James's idea, lacking subtly, is correct. This creates a situation that minimizes the danger everyone here will be exposed to," Rias eyes went across every single member of her peerage. It was nice, seeing that level of concern from her. "Seeing how this is an attack against a group that is a danger to both any devil and human in this town, I'd rather not see any of you getting hurt. Before engagement, we will need an illusion to mask our attack from the rest of town."

"Akeno and I will handle that part of the plan. Once the illusion is up, James, you have permission to engage until we join you. Koneko and Kiba, try to keep him as safe as possible," she continued. I did want to chuckle at that. A human mage I may be, but I wasn't that soft and squishy. I was more than capable of handling myself in a fistfight if needed to be, what happened two days ago should have been enough to prove that much.

But I would be hard pressed to think I was better than those two. Kiba's speed was a terrifying thing, and I wouldn't be surprised if Koneko could ignore attacks that would leave me dead. Rook durability and knight speed. Fun stuff, I had to admit.

"Ideally, the fallen will try to counterattack right away, and we can catch them between us. Without the Holy Ground weakening us, it should be a much easier task," so I was also bait. It's not like the fallen angels had proven too much of a threat thus far. With the fight ranging from a three vs three to a five vs three, things were looking in our favor on that front.

Rias opened her mouth as if to speak, but froze for a few seconds.

"James, stay put, everyone else with me!" her order took me by surprise. Something clearly had happened, and whatever it was, it wasn't good. It was already getting close to the hours of dusk. Wait, dusk? Oh, no, please don't tell me they had been attacked.

I stayed put with reluctance, grinding my teeth. I get why Rias ordered me to stay back and out, devil's using their powers to teleport humans caused a much greater drain on them, I was only the one that didn't have a direct vulnerability to light power.

They weren't gone long, maybe a second or two while I looked for some form of first aid kit, preparing for the worst. Issei was the first I noticed, a clear burn mark through his shoulder, leaking blood. Kiba was keeping the brunette on his feet, helping him along. I did a quick mental count. Kiba, Issei, Rias, Koneko, and Akeno. That left one missing.

"Where's Asia?" it was a question I probably could guess the answer too already, I just didn't want to acknowledge the possibility. Rias looked down, confirming any suspicions I had without a shadow of a doubt. Damnit!

I took a deep breath in, attempting to calm my nerves. Ok, one problem at a time. First, Issei's bleeding. I struggled to remember anything of use in this situation. My mom was a nurse! But I don't think she dealt in puncture wounds like this.

"James," Rias's voice was stern, and I could feel something rolling off her. She was mad, really mad. "Head home and prepare yourself. We will be attacking at seven, understand." I watch Issei grit his teeth, nodding in agreement despite the pain he was in. It didn't seem like any of them were going to let this stand.

"Yes Ma'am," I stammered, taken off-guard by the sudden change in mood. I was actually almost scared of her like she was about to murder something at any second.

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"Bandages, check," I muttered to myself, packing a small bag of medical supplies to bring along. "Disinfectant, double check, phone in a proper durable case, double check." I was leaving with a good forty-five minutes to spare, so and my emergency bag was ready.

I wasn't going into this without some form of proper preparation. My plan had already thrown out the window, that was clear the moment Asia was kidnapped. So I assumed the plan was to bust down the door, kick ass, and chew bubble gum.

And we had gone past the point of being out of gum. To say I was happy about the current situation was an understatement, and very wrong. I get it, there is a reaction window and I couldn't expect them to be there to protect my family immediately, but this was affecting my confidence on that front. The sooner these Fallen Angels were out of Kouh and away from my family, the better off I'd be. Maybe throwing them out the door with a boot up their rear end would make sure they got the picture.

The small bag of supplies slipped from my grasp. Why now, of all times? I didn't even jinx it, so why were the wards acting up? It was like they were getting hit by something. Pulling my phone from the case, inching my way towards the window, taking a peek through the curtains.

Well, this was just great. Three, no four, probably more, Fallen Angels were circling the house. I frowned, looking at the time on the screen. I still had time, but it would be for them if I just informed Rias now.

I pushed the contacts, and let the phone ring, as I moved away from the outer wall and the window. All my defensive spells were holding, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Yes?" Rias's voice came over the line, seemingly surprised.

"Rias, if I'm not near the rondevu point in time, start without me. I'll join you when I'm able, but right now I'll be busy," I said, slowly making my way towards the door. Once I was done talking to Rias, I was going to call Sona, and ask her to bring in the cavalry. Maybe there would be enough to clean up once she got here.

"What do you… Oh," it didn't take long for her to figure it out, but I cut her off before she could say anything else. She was going to offer reinforcements, ones we couldn't spare.

"Rias, I can handle myself in a fight. Asia can't. She is the priority in this situation. I'll contact Sona as soon as I can," I stated firmly as possible, trying to make my point clear. This was my home, and my family was here. I wasn't going to let those winged stains harm them.

The line cut dead before Rias could say anything, calling apart into static. A spell that could jam electronics? I would be impressed if it wasn't for the current situation. Right now, I was only pissed off.

"What's going on out there?" it was my sister, coming down the stairs in leaps and bounds. She'd finally felt the assault as well.

"Stay inside," I ordered, tossing my phone her way, which she managed to catch. "Call Sona the moment the phone stops giving you static." Then, I opened the door, as if the house wasn't under attack in the first place.

Eight was the number I could see, and they all looked surprised to see me walk out of the house, seemingly without a care. Divine Dividings wings carried me upward, almost in a lazy, uncaring manner. Outside, I was as calm as could be. Inside, I was pissed. Once I reached a height, slightly above my roof, still within the wards surrounding the house, I spoke.

"I'm giving you one chance to leave peacefully. Leave town, and get out of Devil Territory before I and the ones who rule this place kick you out. Or kill you, or whatever other foul things they have in store for you," I ground out, letting my anger become known. One, I could see acting on their own. This meant something had come from the top.

"We aren't here to fight!" one of the Fallen shouted, the one hovering closest to the house. "Just hand over the girl and we'll be out of your." Whatever he was trying to say was cut off by a scream of pain. Lightning coursed through his body, sending him spiraling towards the ground, landing with a satisfying crunch. The fall for a human would have been lethal at that height, and while I didn't know about a Fallen Angel, at that moment. I. Did. Not. Care!

The sheer thought. They wanted to kidnap my sister! Any and all sense of restraint was gone.

"Balance BREAKER!" I let my power run wild, radiating off me in waves. They wanted to fight me! They wanted to steal what I had protected! I'd take them all on! If they didn't understand my first warning, maybe putting these down would get the point across!

My first punch connected before they could even react, tearing off the nearest fallen's arm. I grabbed the limb out of the air before it could begin to fall, smashing him over the back of the head with it, before tossing it aside. I watched them, watching the fear on their faces, as they struggled to realize what had happened.

Two more fell from the sky, lightning arcing from my hands, leaving scorched flesh and fried wings. Four spears of light were thrown through the sky, each missing me as a weaved through them, towards my target, the Fallen Angel hanging above the fight. Likely the one jamming the phone lines or something.

Even as angry as I was, I knew I wasn't being subtle, and that there was likely some form of protocol for when the cat got out of the bag. So unless they did something, the cat was going to be very much out of the bag. But I wasn't in the mood to care. My fist connected with the Fallen's rib cage, knocking him backward through the air.

Strange. He wasn't unconscious yet. Good. Maybe they brought something that could be a decent challenge after all. His head shook as if I had broken his concentration. Good, that meant my theory was correct after all. I shot past him, wrapping the armor than hung from my back around his neck. He didn't seem to notice until my moment began pulling him along, robbing him of the air he needed to breathe.

I stopped mid-air, turning around, allowing momentum the Fallen had built up as I struck with an uppercut to his face. Again, bones didn't crack, or at least, none that I could hear. So, this one was hardier than the others. Maybe I should have focused on the small fry first, before going after the big guy.

No matter. Lightning answered my call, twin bolts forcing my opponent towards the ground.

"Divide," I muttered beneath my breath, only for my amusement. If I wished, I could have reduced his strength so he was unable to breathe and his heart unable to beat. There was much I could have done to make him suffer, but there was no need to be too cruel.

Dirt and grass exploded forth as I finally forced the Fallen Angel to land. I then crashed into his body like a meteorite, breaking through his weakened guard. This time, bones cracked, satisfying to my ears. Four light spears clattered against the dragon scale I was wearing, each one shattering on impact.

The split second my eyes were turning to trace the ones that had dared to attack me, the Fallen Angel bellow me thrust with a light spear aimed at my chest. It did nothing, but it didn't shatter either. I looked down, my expression hidden behind my helmet, as I brought both my fists down, leading to another eruption of dirt and grass.

I rose from the cloud, scraping off some of the dirt that landed on my shoulder with little more than a flick. I glared at the final four remaining. Two of them had taken their eyes off me, focusing on something else bellow, one of them bleeding from a few puncture marks. I frowned. Hadn't I told her to stay inside and let me handle this? Each shot was going wide, and it was clear to tell why. She was using her Sacred Gear and she let them figure out what it did.

But seeing that they likely knew, letting them leave wasn't going to happen. Assuming this entire group didn't know in the first place, but that wasn't going to change the outcome. Who would the Devil's trust, an ally who was working for them, or a Fallen Angel trying to soy discord? Her Sacred Gear would remain a secret, and she would remain out of this, even if I could not!

I blitzed the two not focusing on me, grabbing the one of the left, swinging him around like a club. Both tumbled out of the air, limbs tangling together, allowing me to fry them both with a simple spell. Then, I turned to face the last two, hovering with looks of panic on their faces.

They could not outrun me, they could not outfight me. I was better than them in every single way. Their choices were to surrender, stand, and be taken prisoner, or run, and be taken prisoner.

Crack! The sound took me by surprise, as one of the Fallen suddenly fell out of the air, only to be kept from crashing into the ground by someone grabbing their arm. The other suddenly found herself held aloft by a bubble of water, pinning her wings and arms to her side.

"Baker." Sona's voice sounded somewhat harsh. "Your sister has a very interesting definition of you being in trouble."

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"So that's what I was doing last night," I finished explaining to Issei and Asia. Issei was aware of my detainment, but not all the details connected to it. Though I hadn't told them everything. Asia was simply too kind-hearted to keep a secret from anyone, and Issei, was, well, Issei.

Though to say I was the only one of us that had a bad night was a blatant lie. Asia had her Sacred Gear torn from her body, which was why she was the newest member of Rais's peerage. I found myself looking the girl over, seeing if I could spot any differences in her personality, only to find that no such thing existed. Asia was Asia, whether she was a Devil or not was irrelevant.

And though Asia was the worst off out of us, Issei watched her die in his arms, and then fought the Fallen Angel that killed him the first time. While Boosted Gear made such a fight easy, it only added to Issei's emotional scars. Most of the Fallen Angels at the church were killed, alongside most of the exorcists, though Freed had escaped in the aftermath, hopefully, out of town. Without magical equipment or the blessing provided by the Fallen, he was just another sociopath, dangerous, but not entirely our field of operation.

"Sona-senpai is a Devil?" I heard Asia mutter under her breath. Her now near perfect Japanese surprised everyone, and given how there could be no logical explanation otherwise, Issei was declared the source. The Rumor mill had let up somewhat on that front, but I was going to keep an ear to the ground just in case.

"I'm surprised you didn't get in trouble for something like that," Issei grinned slightly, as I groaned. It was nice treating this as a normal thing, not like we just were fighting for our lives last night.

"Well, about that," I rubbed my head awkwardly.

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"Given the circumstances and recent events, I can't entirely blame you for your reaction, excessive as it may be," Sona's face was once again unreadable, a situation not helped by my nerves in the slightest. "I'm even willing to admit that the problem should be been dealt with sooner before it could get to that point. However, if it wasn't for the fact the Grigori hadn't declared this group and the one at the church rogue elements, then we could be in extreme diplomatic trouble."

"I understand Kaichou," I nodded. I honestly did understand that my actions could have gone terribly wrong, but that didn't change they were trying to kidnap my family. My sister. I would make the same choice in a heartbeat.

"Normally, I would discipline you for this, however, I have word from your parents on what they plan to do with you, and I believe it is sufficient enough," I shuttered. Naturally, after the lightning and fisticuffs combination, the yard was a mess. More like a swarm of small meteorites had impacted all over the place than anything else.

And yeah, while an illusion stopped people from asking questions, that didn't change what it actually looked like. And while my parents did understand what I did, and why I did it, they were still a little bit pissed off about the whole thing. As a result, my punishment was to clear up after myself. Without magic.

I would have to fill in the holes, by hand, lay down new seeds, and then care for it until it had finished growing. And I was forbidden from using electronic devices outside of schoolwork for the next week. A bit of a pain, but I should count my blessing that Sona didn't decide to add to it. Thank goodness for small mercies, and I certainly wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

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"That sounds rough," Issei commented, "Are you sure you don't want help with that?"

"No," I chuckled to myself. "It's my punishment and I'll deal with it. But thank you for your offer." I smiled a bit. I hadn't expected Issei to offer to do something like that, but it was a pleasant surprise.

"Besides, all I really want for the time being is some peace and relaxation from the chaos," I laughed somewhat at my own personal joke, though Issei seemed to understand what I was saying, nodding his head. Meanwhile, Asia looked between the two of us, puzzled.

"You mean it isn't always like this?"

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"Kaichou, may I speak with you?" a voice echoed through the door of the Student Council's room.

"Come in," Sona said, as the door creaked open. She wasn't surprised by the person she saw. She was more surprised about how late in the day it was, but she knew Baker, Lily would make her way to the Student Council. She had interrogated a few of them before the Grigori had arrived to take them away for punishment, something neither her or James liked, but that decision was outside of her grasp.

They had no place to keep them, and even if they did, they weren't important enough to be worth the effort. If he had killed them outright, which she was a bit surprised he hadn't done so, then there wouldn't be much discussion.

But two of them claimed to have seen the girl herself use magic, in the form of lightning bow of sorts. This contradicted what James had said about nobody else in his family has magical talents, but she was beginning to suspect he was lying. His parents might be simply because he didn't know. But with his sister not knowing, he was lying intentionally. Especially since lightning was one of his preferred method of attack. It wouldn't be a stretch to guess that he made a spell for her own use.

Then there was the second part of their claim, and if true, it only made James actions being more understandable. If they were to be believed, then Lily Baker possessed a Sacred Gear that had the power to see the future. Such Sacred Gears were extremely rare and were considered borderline Longinus across the border, with only a single exception.

To have even the weakest of them on your side was a massive boon, and some would be willing to anger even a full Longinus Sacred Gear user to acquire one. In fact, it might earn one's loyalty, if only reluctantly through threats and blackmail. If the latter was true, then it would go quite a ways in explaining why James never mentioned his younger sibling's potential. And why he would jump to the conclusion that they had come for his family.

Sona did understand part of it. James was content to stay out of the magical world and likely would have done so if it wasn't for the Fallen Angels. As such, he wouldn't tell them if he knew anyone else that could use magic because he himself didn't really want to be part of the magical world. Nor did he want his family to be involved.

James was being protective, much in a similar way that she and Rais's older siblings were. But was that what Lily wanted?

Well, it was possible this conversation would shed some light on the matter. Perhaps not. But Sona could tell that younger Baker sibling was nervous. Given last night was likely the first experience she had with the magical world, this was understandable.

"I hope you weren't too hard on my brother. He was only trying to protect us," Lily looked down at her feet, shifting in a nervous manner.

"Given the circumstances, I believe your parent's punishment was more than adequate," Sona watched as the girl sighed, tension leaving her body. "Is that all?"

"Ah, not entirely," she started looking back to her feet again. This was very strange for her. Sona knew the up and coming star of the archery team was normally quite calm, but she was extremely nervous, and it wasn't just because of her brother.

"You know how my brother has a Sacred Gear, right?" Sona nodded, hoping to encourage the girl to go on. "Well, I have one too. Can you…?" She watched as Lily's eyes became more snake like for a second before they flashed back to normal.

"How do you already know?"

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This chapter changed a lot from what I originally had in mind. My original plan involved James joining the Assault on the Church, with him holding off Freed, allowing for the Issei, Kiba, and Koneko to skip ahead. This meant the ritual with Asia was interrupted, rather than completed, due to them not wasting time against Freed. The Fallen outside the church would have actually taken longer to clean up because Mittelt wasn't there to push Rias's buttons, which would have resulted in them playing with their food a bit.

However, seeing as the ritual was interrupted halfway through, Twilight Healing would be half in, half out, which would be causing Asia a lot of pain. James would have had Issei and Kiba get her to the nearest hospital in the meantime (hint, the closest was the one James's mom works at), where I would have revealed something I've been sitting on since Chapter 1 (in fact, I actually cut part of chapter 1 out simply for this reveal), and given more hints on future plot points. Asia would likely still become a Devil, mostly due to her options being either that or her life being nothing but physical pain, which some might consider worse than death.

Instead, the events at the Church pretty much go down as things did in canon. Issei has a slightly easier time, but that's about it. I decided to have Lily reveal her future sight to Sona earlier than I intended. *Looks quickly at original plans*, much, much earlier.


	8. Chapter 8

There was light? Everything hurt. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to think. But where was she? The last thing she remembered was the flash of light and the crack of thunder.

Her eyes snapped open, blinking desperately to clear her vision. She needed to be ready to move at a moment's notice. She was already in enemy territory as was. She. She. She was in a hospital? She blinked one again, trying to confirm that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. They weren't. Somehow, she had ended up in a human hospital.

That was when she noticed she wasn't alone. Someone was in this room with her. Had they seen her wings? If so, she would need to kill them at once. But that was when her brain put a name to the woman's face. The hair, the eyes. She was the mother of the one she had been ordered to kill. And the women did recognize her as well.

"I wouldn't be trying to move if I were you. My son saw fit to cripple you. Pray, I don't decide it wasn't enough," her voice was as cold as a grave. Cripple her? She tried to push up, to prop herself up so she wouldn't be lying down in front of a pitiful. Her right hand found purchase on the sheets and mattress. Her left hand did not.

She looked down, down at her left shoulder, to where her left arm should be. And she found nothing. Just empty space and a burnt stump of a limb. Mittilit's eyes widened in shock. Her arm, were was her arm? What had happened to her arm?

"As I said, my son saw fit to cripple you. And you should be lucky I didn't decide to finish what he started," the women were releasing pressure in waves, each threatening to drown her. Before, she would have been horrified, would have made an attempt to escape. Now, she just felt numb. The lightning bolt had missed. It had to have missed. This, this was just a bad dream. Right?

Mitillet looked up, trying to fight back her pain. She wasn't weak. She wasn't going to look weak in front of a useless human! That's when she noticed it. The thing, coiling around her. Almost inviting her to strike, to do something, anything. Mitillet's face warped, one of fear and anger, to one of horror.

No, no, no. That was impossible. That woman had retired years ago. She hadn't been seen in more than a decade, by anyone. Any of the Three Factions, Yoki, Gods of various pantheons and other mythological beings hadn't heard from her since she had dropped off the radar.

If she was here, and it was her son that she attacked. Mitillet shuttered. She was as good as dead. No, being dead would be a better alternative than this.

"So, you are finally piecing it together. I was wondering how long it would take for you to figure it out. I should kill you right now, but I won't. But if you think about running off, I will make sure my identity stays a secret," it wasn't a threat or a warning, merely a statement of fact. Mitillet knew all too well. She was trapped here with a monster, and even worse, she had done everything in her power to make that monster angry.

"Just in case you are holding out some hope for being rescued, nobody knows that you are alive. And even if you did, you are the sole reason why my son is working with the Devil's in this town. I doubt the Grigori would waste resources or time trying to reclaim worthless trash like yourself," each word cut like a knife, carving out chunks of her mind and spirit. She didn't want this! She was just following orders! She didn't deserve this!

But there was truth in the women's words. Because of her failure, the Devil's had access to Divine Dividing, and while it seemed like he still remained mortal, how long could such a thing last? Devil's were known for making deals, after all. How long till they made him an offer he wouldn't be able to refuse.

"I expect you to play nice during your stay. I hear one word of you so much as setting a finger out of line," the last part came out as a sneer, the words bitting deep into Mitillit's chest, cruelly reminding her that she was missing an arm. "Nobody is going to remember you were ever at this hospital. My own Hippocratic oath is damned."

She left, leaving Mittilet by herself, alone. Alone to her thoughts, her fears, her despairs. And that was the worst punishment at all.

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Sona was dealing with a few problems. First and foremost was the paperwork. For all of Rias's hopes, she had still taken precautions in case of worst when it came to Raiser. Instead of requesting that he help train up Issei or even act as a replacement piece for her Bishop during the rating game, she had their joint contract transferred over to Sona alone. While James's desire to stay out of supernatural affairs as much as possible was known, Sona believed James would act if called on.

He would likely demand to fight with her if he knew something like that was happening. James may not like getting involved, but he showed a willingness to do so if he felt like it was needed. Still, it was a very Gramory trait to look after one's servants, Devil or otherwise, and Sona did suppose she had James's interested at heart when she committed such actions. And seeing as James would be the easiest to get out of Raiser's grasp, she wasn't entirely surprised her friend took that route.

Still, Issei had managed to come through in the end. A risky idea it may have been, forcing Balance Breaker too early, he had managed to pump up Rias with enough energy to finish the fight in a single blast of destructive power. Which was why she was now working on trying to null the contract.

But that brought its own issues. While Rias now wouldn't have to worry about Raiser ever again, there was now another problem they both faced. Issei's incomplete Balance Breaker had come at the cost of his arm, now prematurely locked into the form of Boosted Gear. While they could hide that simply enough, Ddraig was now awake. She wasn't aware if James ever did reveal to Issei that Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing were hosts to rival entities, but even if he did, things might turn violent regardless.

That was always a concern, and a bridge to cross when it finally showed up, but for it to be this soon. While James had said many a time that he had no interest in continuing the age-old feud between dragons, that might not entirely be up to him to decide.

And on the James front, she had the complicated relationship between him and his sister. The one who wanted nothing to do with the supernatural world, and the one who was jealous that her older brother was a part of something that he was trying to prevent her from being hurt. Something that might come from his parents. Her having a Sacred Gear in the first place added to her theory that James's parents knew more than they let on. They had managed to keep the two of them in line, so it made sense.

Future Sight Sacred Gears were rare, extremely so. While many mythological cultures had beings that claimed to see the future, very few were authentic, and even fewer ended up as Scared Gears. As such, whenever such a thing appeared, it was a race to lay claim to it. Even if James's didn't know the specifics, he wasn't a fool. One would be willing to risk the wrath of a Longinus user to acquire such a thing. In hindsight, his simple demands made much more sense. It was possible they wouldn't like into a person who they thought was human without any magical powers. Quite clever, actually. Such would explain his willingness to lie about the matter.

And there was the crux of the issue. Did she prove him right? As things stood, she would be able to reincarnate her immediately. Yes, it would take the rest of her pawns to do so, but without factoring in anything else, it was worth the price. More than worth the price. But that was it. James was a factor, he wasn't going to let it slide. Was she willing to risk angering him?

The answer to that was no. For several reasons, not just because of his Sacred Gear. If his magical talents were expanded upon, he would become a force to be reckoned with, even if he remained mortal. Part of her regretted not having the pieces needed to reincarnate him if need be, but she wouldn't trade in her peerage for anything, even a Longinus. And powerful allies were hard to come by, especially mortal ones. While most would prefer the power and attentional benefits of being a devil, including immortality, there would be uses for mortals if the war returned.

Having someone like James would be useful, a hidden ace who would be able to ignore most group's standard defenses against devil-kind. That was a big if, at the end of the day. She certainly hoped not.

For the time being, it was something best left be. James would hopefully come around at some point or another. But Ddraig awakening was the ultimate point of concern. Trying to keep the two separate would be a struggle, even if they were in different classes. Simply put, there wasn't a good answer, only a hope that if they did fight, they would save it tell after school let out. Or left Kouh all together. But they would have to be prepared for the worst.

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Given my punishment, I hadn't been hanging around Rias's Peerage, but rather the Student Council. It was different, to put it mildly. Sona was much more stern than Rias was, something I picked up beforehand. But that carried on to her peerage as well. Though, like Rias's, it was female dominate, with Saji being the only boy of the group. Same hair color any eye color as Kiba, being a bit more, I didn't have a good word for it? Rough and tumble at any rate. It wouldn't surprise me if Saji knew how to throw a punch. Part of the reason I approached him, alongside the similarities of our Sacred Gears. Absorption Line and Divine Dividing being used in tandem would be interesting to see.

We had talked a few times during Issei's and the rest of Rais's peerage absence, something of which had been kept tight for some reason. I hoped it wasn't anything major, at any rate. Sure, I wasn't able to do the usual things that I was had slowly getting used too, something I likely wouldn't admit out loud, but not seeing any of them at school was something different. I hoped it wasn't anything too major. Sona would have likely told me if it was, but it didn't stop me from being concerned. Even I had to admit had was growing attached to them and their insanity, but it only proved why I wanted out in the first place. Hopefully, things stopped escalating.

Tsubaki, Sona's Queen, was the other Sacred Gear user of the group, just as stern as Sona, maybe even more so. That Sacred Gear was Mirror Alice, which could return any spell back towards its caster. While doubling the power. Combined with magic, alongside knight speed and rook toughness, made her one of the few people besides Rias and Sona I wouldn't want to fight. Too many outs for my preferred strategy, keep my distance and blast with lightning spells. I didn't really speak with her that often. Often it was better off to just cut to the chase and deal with Sona, anyway.

Momo and Reya were Sona's Bishops, who I was actually excited to meet. Asia was nice but didn't really have a lot of pure magical knowledge, or desire to learn more about such arts. Momo and Reya outpaced me on that front, a bit of a humbling experience. My isolation may have given me good skills, but those skills were extremely limited in practice. I was a hedge mage, skilled, but limited. But when the fundamentals and the language of spells came in, I was ahead by miles.

Part of it might have been their reliance on Devil's natural magic abilities. From how I understood it, they could effectively cast spells that did whatever they wanted them to do. No mess, no fuss, no nearly having something blow up in your face. I was quite jealous, to be honest. Still, I preferred my more scientific approach, even they had it easier. Though the time I had for research had dropped off a bit with my punishment and all. Part of me was holding out that the request I made to go through and I'd get anti-light spell material to work with, but with the threat of the Fallen Angels having passed, it was likely no longer a priority. That, and most of what I was working on was theory related.

What I had loosely been calling spell augments were interesting, but had problems that needed to be addressed. The most looming had been where exactly to place modification to the spell. Place it at the end? This made sense for some, like adding more power, but it didn't work for others, like one that would decrease casting time. Place it first, on the inside? That wouldn't work either. Doing so would change the entire spell itself, possibly violently, creating something new. Start from the outer layers of the spell then work inward? That I wasn't sure was even possible. I had always started with the inner layers, before expanding outward. I had asked the two Bishops if they knew anything about it, but the response I got

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Issei had been gone for the past few days. No, correction, Rias's peerage had been gone for the past few days. Nobody seemed to be concerned about the matter, either. I had tried sending a text, but I didn't get anything. I had a hard time believing a place in Japan could be without cell phone service. Maybe they were in the Underworld? Did the Underworld get human cell phone service? Did the Underworld even have cell phones?

Boy, those were questions I never thought I'd ask. I didn't have a lot of context for that either. I suppose I could ask Sona about it, but there were other things on my plate, and right now, even distantly stepping on my parent's toes. I wouldn't be surprised if they partly blamed Rias and Sona for what happened. What a mess the whole situation was. Willing to bet that they were regretting the decision to move. Meanwhile, I was, and at the same time, wasn't.

It certainly hadn't been boring, certainly. Actually using the skills I had to spend time developing was nice too. More impressive than safe party tricks, and far more satisfying. Still, the boredom, especially without Issei's antics to deal with, had been bringing my spellbook into class. Not like they would see anything anyway, if they tried to sneak a peek at it, and I doubted most would try. Even if I hanged out with Issei, I still had more of the delinquent status than that pervert, though I didn't do much to deserve either, especially the latter.

Still, it wasn't much when it came to actual spellcasting, but rather me trying to create what amounted to a real system of the Dungeons and Dragons metamagic system of empowering spells. Live experiment results had been less than stellar, so I was focusing on theory for the time being. Which, of course, lead to a lot of reading. It wasn't too bad. I was certainly learning a lot. Nothing like what I was trying to do had been attempted, and clearly for good reason. My comparison of making spells to writing computer code was accurate. The innermost circle was like the foundation, with the remainder of the spell built on top of that. If I placed it at the beginning, it would replace or override the foundation, changing it into something that may not support the spell.

I let out a sigh of frustration, leaning back slightly from where I was currently sitting in the library. While that did explain my failure thus far, it did little to help me going forward. Accomplishing this would be no small task, but I did want to see it through. The potential benefits of success were quite high. Sure, someone would laugh it off as a crutch, but I didn't care about that. If something came knocking, being able to hit it with as much magic as possible wouldn't be a bad thing.

"Is something wrong?" I looked up, to see the white-haired Bishop of Sona's Momo Hanakai. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about the Bishop. While she was more interested in magic than Asia generally was, I felt like she wasn't impressed by what I worked with. I swear devil magic sounded cool if you didn't want to have fun with magic. Just will a spell into existence, instead of researching.

"Not really. Just trying to figure something out," I said, opening the book on my right, placing my notebook next to it. 'The Fundamentals of Spellcraft' had proven less than useful in my quest. It had nothing I already knew about from my own trial and error. I felt her eyes fall upon my notebook, as I flicked between it and the new book I had before me.

"What are you even trying to do?" I should have expected that question. I felt a brief twinge of pride though. Someone was taking interesting in my work!

"It's a way to modify spells without changing them from the ground up," she sent me a puzzled look. I bit back a sigh.

"I'll give you an example. Say you are caught in a situation where you need one of your spells to get out of a bad situation, but nothing you know is fast enough to do say," I paused, waiting for her response. She nodded, and I continued.

"If I can get this to work, then someone would be able to change a spell so they could cast it faster. Or increase an offensive spell's power. It's a way to modify a spell without creating a new one," I stated. I didn't know if Devil magic could do something similar, though I wouldn't be surprised.

"Why would that be hard?" I paused, turning my head around. What? Just what? I fought the urge to bury my head into my hands, pulling out a piece of paper from my notebook at the back. It's official, as far as I was now concerned, Devil magic might as well have been a cheat.

"Because it's modifying a spell, without trying to make it different," I drew a simple spell circle on the paper. "This would be the spell itself. It wouldn't change, period. I'm not modifying the spell."

I drew another circle off to the side. It, in theory, would decrease the casting time needed for a spell. While I could probably do the same with Divine Dividing, with better effects, that wasn't an area I was going to experiment with until this was done. I didn't want to cheat it out, and comparing notes might even get me more stuck than before.

"This would allow the same spell to be cast faster. It can't be placed first, as that would disrupt the foundation which would drastically alter the spell in unpredictable ways, but adding it to the end is counter-intuitive," I explained, looking up again to a very puzzled face.

"Isn't magic just math though?" a voice came from behind me, new to the situation. I had to be thankful that school had ended today. It was Reya, Sona's other Bishop, a brunette with long twin-tail like braids. Momo nodded her head, agreeing with her fellow Bishop.

"At its most basic level, magic is effectively math," I began sketching furiously, making a three-layered circle, going into great detail, drawing out the glyphs in each circle. "When one gets into spell making, however, it becomes a bit more complicated. Most commonly used spells today are like equations that have already been solved. One just has to plug in all the numbers correctly, and you'll get the right outcome."

"What I'm doing is effectively messing with the equation itself, trying to make something new. It's like making a new equation, to continue the metaphor," I turned around, trying to get both into my line of vision, for all the good it did me. The two of them were giving me confused looks, questioning what I had told them.

"That seems very complicated," Reya's expression seemed completive, thinking about what I had said. "I honestly have no idea if something like that would even work."

Momo was also lost in contemplation, finger stroking her chin.

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Tomoe was Soni's only knight. Lively was about the only word I could use to describe her. Not exactly a trait one would attribute to a Devil, but Devils seemed a lot more human than I originally thought. I wonder if the other supernatural species were like this as well.

Tsubasa was her only rook like Tomoe was Sona's only knight. Like Tomoe, I hadn't really talked with her much. If nothing else, she would be a good sparring partner. She was around my height and seeing as she is a rook, close quarters was likely her specialty.

Lastly, there was Ruruko, Sona's other pawn. She was the youngest out of the entire Student Council, sharing the same grade as my younger sister. That was worthy enough of note, meaning the Student Council had at least one person who could keep an eye on her during the school day.

Yeah, I was kind of the odd one out, really. Rias's Peerage was a lot more relaxed than this, and with Issei joining at the same time, well, I was kind of pulled along for the ride. They were going through the motions of inducing someone new, and I was kind of dragged along for the ride. No such thing was happening here. And without some trial by combat to forge the bonds of blood, there was nothing to speed things up either.

"James," an all too familiar voice came from across the room, as I lifted up a box, trying to put it back in place.

"Yes, Kaichou?" I asked sliding to box back into position. I was getting better at Japanese, or at least that word. Sona proved harsher than any tutor. Wouldn't let me slip back into English when it could be avoided.

"There is something we need to disguise," I turned around, trying to pinpoint any emotion. I couldn't find anything, which was usual. I nodded slightly, moving towards her desk. "The reason Rias and her peerage have been gone for the past ten days is that she has been training for a Rating Game."

I was slowly becoming familiar with Devil culture, and Rating Games were a big part of it. Like Football in America big. I didn't know why Rias would all of a sudden have to fight in one. Or why I wasn't informed about it.

"I'll leave her to explain what the Rating Game was about, but I'd like to tell that she won and everyone will be back tomorrow," I smiled. That was, indeed, good news. So why didn't Sona look happy? Whatever it was, shouldn't she relieved? "In doing so, Issei has awakened Ddraig."

"Oh," I said. What more was there to be said? That would explain why she wasn't happy. "That's problematic. That's very problematic" I already felt Albion's grin. Oh boy, this was going to be a headache inducer, I could already tell.

"I'm going to repeat what I told you before, I'm not interested," I shoot off mentally, trying to nip this bud before it could bloom. But that was likely already too late. I'd kept things under some form of containment, pointing out how it wouldn't be exactly a fair fight. Something he had thankfully conceded, but with Ddraig awake, things weren't so cut and dry. Another stubborn dragon was the last thing when this town wanted to avoid being crushed in the rubble.

"It is fate. You will clash, whether you like it or not. It is inevitable," the dragon rumbled, as I rolled my eyes. Oh, I doubted that I doubted that very much.

"My sister's Sacred Gear proves the future is far from set in stone," I shot back, focusing on keeping my tongue from moving on its own, and letting something slip out. Albion chuckled, a thunderous sound, like an earthquake.

"The future is changeable. Fate is not. Our clash will happen, one way or another. If you are struck, it would be best to that the advantage while you are the stronger of the two," Albion said, as my annoyance grew.

"Not much of a fair fight, is it?" I groaned out, as I felt a hand touch my shoulder. It was Sona, who seemed slightly worried, brow creased. "Sorry, Albion's being talkative."

This was the most talkative he'd been in quite some time, in fact, much to my dismay. I normally enjoyed his company, but this combat stuff rubbing me the wrong way. If I wanted a fight like that, I would like it to be as even as it could get. Not one side blatantly overpowering the other simply because they could. It felt wrong, like I was a bully, almost. Not only that, Issei was, dare I say it? Nice, despite his flaws. He was a friend, and I'd much rather not ruin that.

"I'll promise to keep the damage to a minimum, or avoid fighting altogether," I said finally. I wanted to say more, but what else could I really say? I was hoping for some degree of peace, but it seems like things were heading right back into chaos. I just hoped that Ddraig and Issei knew when and where to start a fight. Because the last place I wanted that to happen was during the school day.

I rubbed my fingers through my hair. What a fine mess this was.

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Issei and I were thinking alike. Maybe there was some hope for avoiding this needless fighting after all. While avoiding each other outright was impossible, as we were in the same class, we didn't speak with each other, not a single word. Whatever happened, it would be saved until after school. Things were tense though. I could feel it in the air. Almost smell it, like a dragon was somehow present. But that couldn't be, right?

"He managed to unlock his Balance Breaker. It must have cost him something. Like his arm," Albion spoke, snapping me out of my thoughts. A Balance Breaker? No, that couldn't be right. It took me several years to get to that point, and Issei had Boasted Gear for maybe a month at most.

"It's imperfect, still weak, even on a Devil," he continued, as I decided to tune him out and focus on my school work. Wasn't easy, especially whatever that damn feeling was. Occasionally, my eyes flickered to Issei's left hand. Even if I didn't believe it, Albion had planted the seed into my mind.

If that were true, a big if, it still wouldn't be much of a problem. I was unsure of the effects of forcing a Balance Breaker before you develop it naturally, but it likely isn't good. Albion said something about paying a price, and that certainly wasn't good. I looked back. Had Albion offered me the same deal in the past, or something similar? I didn't think so.

"I expect you to pay attention to this part," Albion's internal voice was louder, almost causing me to visibly wince. Almost. He'd had how many hosts before this? How many other ways can you spell not interested? "Such Balance Breakers are on a time limit. You would only need to outlast him."

Thanks, but hopefully, it was advice I wouldn't need.

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"So."

"So."

It was after class, and we had gotten as far away from the school as we could manage. Well off grounds, into the woods. Ideally, it would provide cover, and nobody would get hurt. Well, nobody outside of ourselves.

"It has been a long time, Albion," a second voice, rumbling, like Albion, but different. I couldn't really describe it.

"Indeed, it has, Ddraig," the white dragon responded in kind. Their hate for each other was nearly physical, unabated by time. "A shame. If you had time to build up strength in your current host, this would be a worthy challenge."

Ddraig let out a snort of some sort, perhaps of annoyance, or maybe anger. Was he really willing to let a host die simply because of pride? Oh, who am I kidding, I know the answer is yes. If there was another word besides power that could be used to describe Dragons, it would be pride. Issei and I shared a look. I don't think he wanted to do this either.

"Very well. Are we ready to begin?" Issei and I gave each other one final look in the face. This would decide everything going forward. Our potential friendship. Our families. Our school. Our town.

We opened our mouths as one.

"Nope."

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I don't think Ddraig or Albion have ever had their hosts not agree with them about starting to punch each other after meeting one another. It took a few moments for our refusal to register properly, and once it did, oh boy. They weren't sure how to handle it. A few minutes of silence had already passed.

"Why not?" it was Issei that broke the silence first, surprisingly. I looked at him funny.

"What do you mean, why not? Do I really seem like the person to punch someone in the jaw because two dragons who were never able to work out their grudge match told me too?" I asked, kind of feeling insulted.

"Besides outside of my immediate family, you are one of the few sane people I can get into contact with easily right now. It's nice having that around," I said honestly. Issei looked at me somewhat surprised. I had friends back in the states, but not even the all mighty power of the internet could make up for the fact they were on the other side of the world. Sure, I could use emails and the like, but talking to them face to face was a bit challenging.

Issei nodded, seeming to understand where I was coming from. He seemed a bit more relaxed than he was before, the tension had mostly left the air now. That was good.

"Speaking of which. I was only informed about the Rating Game business yesterday. Pass along my congratulations to the rest of the team," I grinned slightly, as Issei rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Rais said it was a Devil affair, and she didn't want to concern you with it," Issei said, as I grew a puzzled look on my face. Didn't want to, or couldn't?

"Mind telling me what it was all about, anyway?" I asked, frowning slightly.

"Well."

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I listened to Issei's story. To say I was a bit mad was an understatement. An arranged marriage? Given that Issei called him a 'fried chicken bastard', it wouldn't take much to infer he was a bit of a dick. Apparently, Issei managed to unlock Balance Breaker during the fight, using the power boost and with the limiter of Boosted Gear removed, used it until he passed out, but not before passing off the strength to Rias, allowing her to finish the fight. However, it did have a cost. The dragon I had felt on the tip of my senses, was coming from Issei's arm. Akeno had apparently been keeping it in check, which was why I couldn't see it. I suppose desperate times do call for desperate measures.

I was happy that they won, but I had some anger. The other Bishop hadn't shown up, which was odd, very odd, given the circumstances. But that wasn't why I was mad. I was mad because I hadn't been asked to sub in. Yeah, I get it, I'm a squishy human being who didn't want to get involved with this, but dammit, sometimes a person doesn't get what they want!

If she wanted me to help, I would have. No questions asked. If she didn't want to end up married to what I understood as an asshole, I would have been more than willing to help, my secrecy and comfort be damned. Those days were numbered anyway. While it was nice that she had considered my wishes in her decision making, that didn't make it feel like it was any less stupid of her to not use a powerful asset, especially with stakes that high.

Still. I could already tell where things were going. Issei had helped Rias out of an arranged marriage. While I didn't see the two of them interact, it wouldn't be a stretch to think she would be grateful for such a thing. With Asia, I wouldn't be surprised if that made two. Who knows, maybe he would accomplish his dream after all. If he did, I would certainly pity the poor soul.

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I'm really sorry about how late this is. Finals may be finished, but I still have summer classes (isn't college fun!) to prepare for. Two months is still much too long, and I'll try my best to make sure there it's such a long time between chapters. '

Thank you for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

"It's good to see this not end in disaster," Rias grinned. Everyone was hoping for a peaceful resolution, but it didn't seem possible. Her Issei had formed a bond with James in a very short amount of time, and that friendship seemed to have paid off. Well, they would still fight, but that would likely be several years into the future, and in a very controlled environment, meaning someone getting killed was unlikely.

"I agree," Sona nodded, pleased about what their familiar's were reporting. Keeping an eye on things was her top priority. Ideally, if there was a fight, they would be able to step in and defuse the situation and find some other alternative. But it hadn't come down to that. She still wasn't sure exactly what they would do, given the circumstances.

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"So, if they try to get us to fight, we do so in a manner that is completely embarrassing to the two. Are we in agreement?" I asked, honestly wearing what had to be a smug look on my face. It wasn't that I didn't trust Albion, but with his rival being so close constantly, I wanted to take some precautions. And what better way than stopping the two rivals from going at it than a hit to their pride?

Well, that was my reasoning anyway. Pride is something important for dragons as a whole, and as such, any hit to it would, well, bad. Especially for you know, two dragons that caused a cease-fire just by getting into a fight in the middle of a war. I didn't want to seem cruel, but it seemed like a good idea. Just in case.

Issei shook my hand, finalizing our unwritten agreement. I could already feel the protests coming on. I kind of felt bad. We kind of just shot their tradition of fighting each other out of a cannon.

"No actually fighting each other until we both agree our strength is equal," Issei confirmed, nodding his head. Issei was starting from behind on this one, and I wouldn't stoping my growth either. If anything, I would be getting more strength from the current situation. I doubted the incident with the Fallen Angels was going to be the end of things. Power attracts trouble, and there were few things more powerful than a dragon.

And you put two god killing dragons in one place, that would be quite a bit of power. Which meant one thing. We would be attracting quite a bit of trouble in the future. That was simply the way of the world. Even if I wanted to be wrong.

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With a potential city-destroying fight done before it could even start, I still had stuff that required doing. Most importantly, the last of the impact holes to fill. I had left the smallest for last, mostly a quick clean up effort compared to what had come before. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, letting out a sigh of relief. The sod wouldn't be in for a while now, so my work was done for the time being. Sure it would only be for a few days, but it was freedom I would enjoy over those next several days. Until the sod arrived, that was, and then it became a slow process of helping the roots grow in properly.

So, what to do with my newfound and temporary freedom? Well, I do suppose I could run some experiments while waiting for dinner.

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Well, that hadn't gone as well as expected, for me at least. I frowned. I looked back over the video recordings and my notes, comparing spell circles. I was sticking to sparks as a baseline, keeping a constant throughout my experiments. So far, I wasn't having much luck. The fact the spell still worked, casting as normal, but none of the augments took. Same time to cast, same power output, nothing was changing.

The fact the spell was still being cast was honestly making things worse. At least if the entire spell failed, I'd be able to piece together was things were going wrong a whole easier. The augment was cast, the spell was cast, it was just that the augment didn't take. They just didn't piece… together…

I frowned, flipping through notes, before yanking out one of the spellbooks laying on the table, opening it quickly. They weren't fitting together properly. Each spell mandal had to connect properly, inside each other, for the spell to work in the first place. There had to be a way to lock the spell in place with the augment. I could have sworn I saw something about this somewhere.

Yes, here it was. I began pouring over the page for details. Yes, yes, this could be it! I grinned, breathing excitedly. I grabbed my phone, hitting the record button. If this was right, then I might as well go big!

"This is Spell Augment test number fifteen. This test is for the sparks spell, detailed on page 120, with the augment of Maximize. Attempt three," I spoke, forming the augmentation first while forming sparks on the inside. I began to slowly rotate the spell in the palm of my hand, attempting to find what I was searching for.

After a nearly complete rotation I felt a mental click, the entire spell was now slowly spinning, locked into place. I made a quick mental note to rotate the original augment position around ten to fifteen degrees clockwise in my notes.

"Ok, releasing spell in five, four, three, two, one," I counted down, placing the energy needed to activate the spell. Nothing. It was taking the magic, but it wasn't enough to activate it? Well, I did add more layers so maybe it would take more magical power.

It took me about twice the power for the regular sparks spell, but half that of a lightning bolt, to get the spell up and running. I grinned, before waves of lightning shot forth from the spell. Regular sparks could kill a person after prolonged exposure. This? This would turn a man to ash. I canceled the spell, ending the torrent of lightning before it could to any more damage.

"Mother of," I almost swore, forgetting I was recording myself, before picking up the phone from it's resting place, taking ending the recording, before taking a picture of the wall. The concrete had been blackened slightly from the previous experiments, but it was something that could easily be fixed by a good spell and some scrubbing.

This? This was something else entirely. Parts of the wall looked warped as if changed by an intense source of heat. Almost as if it had started to undergo metamorphosis. I slowly approached, careful not to touch anything. I felt the heat radiating from the wall, still, as I muttered under my breath.

"I think I'm done experimenting for the night."

"I do believe that would be wise," Albion responded.

This was beyond excessive. This was a success, without a doubt, but it was too much of one in my eyes. If this is what a spark's spell could do under the effects of a maximized augment, then what was possible with my other spells? I shuttered at the thought. I could have brought down the entire wall, or worse. Everything else would have to wait a while.

I cast a few spells, helping the concrete expel the heat, draining it away, before making the changes, then leaving a note in bold letters next to the spell.

WARNING! DO NOT USE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NESSICARY!

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I let out a yawn as I stepped on to Kouh's grounds. Despite going to bed at a decent hour, my heart was pumping and my brain was too chaotic to get a good night's rest. What if's had plagued my waking thoughts. What if I had used a stronger spell? What if someone in my family got hurt.

Sure, I hadn't, but that didn't change that it could have happened. Not only that, I needed to know how it affected my stronger spells if I were to ever use it in battle. It was stupid to go into battle and use something that hadn't been tested before. But testing them at home was now a no go. For clear and obvious reasons. I'd have to ask Sona if there was any place to practice, though I had left the book at home.

I didn't want to be carrying it around, and I wouldn't be experimenting without my ability to write notes. It was foolish to assume every single augment would need its position altered to the same degree to create the functioning spell. I was stepping into new territory with this, too my knowledge, and I would handle it as meticulously and scientifically as possible!

"You seem a bit tired, brother," my sister looked up, grinning somewhat, as I let out another stretch and a yawn.

"Did not get as much sleep as I would have liked. Brain didn't want to shut down," it wasn't a lie in the slightest, but that wasn't the whole story. I was still uncertain about my gambit and leaving her this close to the chaos. Then again, the safest place to be in a hurricane is in the eye of the storm. I hoped nobody looked too deep into my sister. Not that they had a reason too. All any of the devils knew was that I was concerned that Fallen Angels would come after my family, a now an extremely well-founded concern, and I wanted them to stay safe.

Not that I was trying to hide her Sacred Gear. Sure, I was doing both at the same time, but I just hoped everything held up. The sooner she was out of reach of any supernatural beings, the better. Stepping into a spotlight help me in that regard.

"Really? Why doesn't that surprise me?" she teased, grinning quite happily as well. I hadn't told her about what happened yesterday with Issei either. Things had ended well on that front, so there was no need to spread anymore worry and concern.

"I'll see you after school," I said, waving as I headed towards my homeroom.

"I have archery club today. You don't need to wait," she shouted back. Oh, please, it wasn't like I now had my club activities now. Well, I wasn't an actual member of the Acolt Research Club or the Student Council, but I was technically a member now. Of both groups, I felt, not just one. So, yeah, I was going to have something to do more likely than not. Joy.

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When Sona decided today would be a training session for her Peerage, and brought James along with her, she had expected most of his time to be spent with her two Bishops. It would do both parties some good, broadening the magician's magical exposure while educating Hanakia and Kusaka of other forms of magic outside of natural Devil magic.

Instead, he had spent most of the time sparing with Yura. Naturally, James wasn't winning, even if the Rook was pulling her punches. Rias had told her that James, unlike most magicians, seemed to have a degree of competence when it came to hand-to-hand combat. She found herself agreeing with that assessment. All things considered, he was doing quite well. As well as one could be against an opponent that could easily punch his head off.

She watched as James blocked, going for a strike to the head, only to be beaten there as Yura landed a solid uppercut to his jaw. Even controlled, the blow had enough force to lift him off the ground, before gravity took over. While Sona didn't wince, she made a mental note to ask Rias if Asia could join them next time. She might just send him that way at this rate. At the rate things were going, James would be nothing more than a walking bruise before the day was done.

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Out of my list of bright idea's, wanting to spare with a Rook wasn't one of them. I let out a groan of pain as I pulled myself up. I was right about her being a great sparring partner, but it was becoming clear that she had more experience than I did, and I wasn't simply referring to training. I was aware of my weakness as a magician. It was a common trope throughout most fantasy works.

Mages, soccerers, magic users in general, we, were squishy. Sure, one could more often than not blast an opponent to pieces or otherwise avoid close quarters altogether. Sure, Divine Dividing granted me the power of flight, but in a world were angels, devils, and other mythological beings were real, flight wasn't going to be enough. Sure, simple fists weren't enough either, I knew that long before this display.

In reality, I knew that against someone who could close the distance and knew what they were doing, I would fall apart in melee. Well, without taking Divine Dividing into account. But knowing how to put up a fight, combined with spell's designed for close quarter's use, would allow me to surprise an opponent, seising the upper hand or allowing me to create more space. Freed was the first time I'd made use of such a strategy, and it worked reasonably well. Dividing his strength has also helped. If this was a real fight, I would have already done so, which would give me the edge.

"Are you ok?" Tsubasa offered me a hand, which I appreciated, my sparring partner pulling me to my feet.

"I'm fine. I'll just be very sore later," I nodded in thanks, though I was somewhat lying. I was sore now. Like everyone else, our school uniforms had been replaced by gym clothes. Not too different from those I used to wear in America. That, and the boxing glove-like things we were using. Probably why I hadn't broken any fingers so far, and why hadn't suffered anything worse than some bruising.

"I can still keep going," I said. Honestly, it would probably do me some good to take a breather. Get some water and breathe a bit. Maybe even practice with the Bishops.

But I didn't want to do that right now. Part of it was stupid. The events of last night kind of bothered me, and I just wanted to take my mind off it for a while. Sure, this wasn't what I'd call the healthiest way to go about it, but it felt nice to have my mind off it for a while.

The bluenette raised her eyebrow as if to question my sanity in all this. I simply nodded. I wanted to at least land a solid enough hit before this is done.

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I didn't. I mean, that was to be expected. Still, the right hook was a bit uncalled for. First thing I do tomorrow is finding Asia as soon as possible. I muttered a spell, applying a few quick illusions onto myself. I didn't want my parents getting worried that I got into a fight or anything like that. It wasn't like these were anything major, or quickly fixable.

Still, I was going to be a bit on the sore side until then. While it wasn't exactly pleasant, or relaxing, for that matter, I'd have to try sparing with Tsubasa again some time. Of course, I hoped I didn't end up a giant bruise after next time.

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I made a frown, flipping through my notes. This was more of an annoyance than I had expected. The quickened augment required rotation of around a forty-five-degree angle. For doubled, sixty. I tested out greater with some reluctance, ending with a hundred eighty degrees and a smaller burn mark on the wall.

It was like turning a key in a lock, I suppose. But that raised several more questions. Sure, my grasp of the fundamentals could be described as all over the place, but this didn't make any sense. But if this was going to be published and taken to any serious degree, I was going to need a better explanation that it's magic.

I let out a sigh. I do suppose I would need to ask Sona about this. Or Rias. I closed the notebook, before heading upstairs to place it in my backpack for the next day.

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"Who did you get into a fight with?" the first question out of Issei's mouth. I forgot Devil's were able to see through my illusions quite easily. That was my fault, honestly. I should have thought about it more. Though the grin on his face made it clear he was only teasing.

"Sparing, not fighting," I corrected, somewhat annoyed. My sleep last night wasn't the best either. Pain medician could only do so much. Maybe I should have sought out Asia's healing before, not after.

"Do you want help?" Asia asked, the small blonde not leaving Issei's side. She seemed a bit more attached than normal, keeping close. Hadn't Rias also arrived at school with them? So, there was a rivalry of sorts going on.

Oh boy, this would be potentially bad. Rias was the King of the peerage, after all. If they were both attracted to Issei, how exactly would that work? I wasn't an expert on Devil culture, but so far, everything seemed very human-like. There was no reason to believe this would be any different.

"I would appreciate that, thank you," I said, sitting down behind cover so Asia could do her work. It felt pleasant, like a warm bath, as the bruising slowly faded away.

"That's all I can do for now. They're a bit set in," Asia pouted, apologizing. I stretched out my arms. Even if the bruises weren't entirely gone, I still felt much better.

"It's fine. Thank you, Asia," I grinned, doing my best to calm her fears.

"So, who exactly were you sparing with?" Issei grinned, teasing tone not quite leaving his voice. Despite our city-destroying potential near fight two days ago, he seemed as cheerful as he normally was. It felt nice. I tried to avoid getting too close to most people outside of my family due to my Sacred Gear. Getting people hurt because it was the last thing I wanted, though I still had friends from before my awareness of it or people I couldn't help but get close too.

Having friends I could trust with this, and not be worried about them getting hurt as a result. That wasn't something I had experienced before. It was a pleasant feeling.

"Tsubasa," I said, rubbing my chin slightly. Out of all the bruises, that was the one that hurt the most, even after Asia's healing. That did make sense, seeing as that punch knocked me off my feet and put me flat out on my rear end. Both Asia and Issei gave me a surprised look.

"What? You two were there when I punched Freed in the face," I watched as Issei's face soured and Asia's soften at the mention of the sociopath's name. Yeah, that was still a sore name, even for me. Well, the lunatic was in the underworld now, and he wasn't leaving anytime soon.

"Sorry," I apologized quickly, realizing my error. Out of all the people to hate Freed, Issei was at the top of the list, possibly surpassed by Asia, if she even could hate others. Which I was beginning to doubt. Pure and innocent cinnamon roll indeed.

"You did punch him in the face pretty hard," Issei chuckled, lightening the mood considerably.

"I've always been of the thought that knowing how to throw a punch is the most versatile of all spells," I nodded. Freed hadn't expected the magician to punch him in the face, and I doubted others would as well. Of course, most people wouldn't expect what was considered the most physically frail of the RPG archetypes to suddenly start replicating a JoJo style punchup on their face.

I doubted it would be nothing more than a surprise gimmick among most other human magicians, but Divine Dividing gave me a physical leverage point. Anything with knight-like speed would still kick my face in pretty hard though.

"Serously?" Issei questioned, with Asia also looking a bit surprised.

"Fists worked on Freed when the magic in my arsenal didn't," I shrugged. Though we would have the finish the conversation at a later date. School was just about to begin, and talking magic in front of the majority of the student body wasn't the greatest idea.

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"Interesting. You made this from scratch, correct?" Rias asked as I nodded. She was looking over the spell augments I'd done so far. "I've heard of nordic runes that could make spells quicker to cast, and even calculated magic could be made stronger by one's emotional state, but ones that work on more spells, and empowering them on demand is a good idea."

"Wait. Spells can be made stronger by one's emotions?" I was fairly certain calculated spells didn't work in such a manor. That seemed more the realm of devil magic. Though, given my patchwork magical education, which was mostly self-taught and in an extremely controlled environment, it wouldn't be much of a surprise that I didn't know.

"In extreme cases, yes. Even calculated magic can get stronger based on one's emotional state, though it does make sense that you wouldn't know," Rias pointed out. She was correct, of course. I hadn't been in combat much throughout my life, and while all those times I had been somewhere in the ballpark of angry, I also hadn't been in a situation where I could notice.

Now I was beginning to wish I hadn't filled up the holes in the yard. I wasn't exactly doubting Rias. After all, she did have much more experience with magic than I did. However, I'd prefer to test this for myself. Problem was a combat experience where I would, hypothetically speaking, emotional enough to cause this empowerment would be a really bad time to test such a thing.

However, the crater's throughout the yard could serve as an easy enough baseline, if I measured out diameter and depth, and compared it to when used a regular lightning bolt. Of course, that would require putting another lightning bolt in the lawn, and I don't think my parents would appreciate that.

"Being able to control it though has its benefits," She flipped to Maximix, taking note of the warning I had written. "That bad?"

"Yeah, it's a lot more dangerous than I thought it would be," I said, pulling out my phone and showing her the picture I had taken. "That was from maximizing sparks, one of my weakest spells."

Rias nodded slowly, taking in the information. While apparently, what I had done wasn't as original or potentially game-changing as I had originally thought, but Rias viewed them as useful, at least. That was a good sign, though I'd have to pull out some books to see if I could get any more idea's.

"However, I am curious about this 'Doubled' spell," the redhead stated, handing me back my notebook.

"It duplicates a spell. Say, you use a lightning bolt, then double it, you have two lightning bolts for the price of one," I explained. Rias gave me a somewhat puzzled look.

"Show me."

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Both dummy targets were made of straw, seemingly constructed by Devil magic. As impressive as it was, I still had a job to do.

First, the doubled spell mandal formed, as the lightning bolt was locked into place. I didn't know what Rias had been expecting, but I don't think what I did was it. I released the spell, creating two bolts of lightning, each aimed at a different target. Both connected with the same force I had expected, retaining the power from the original spell.

"I thought the spell circle itself would be duplicated, not the output. Most strange," Rias commented, rubbing her chin slightly. I grinned, enjoying the praise. It was working as I originally intended. "Though, why not just cast multiple spells at the same time?"

That was an interesting question. I knew I could do such a thing, I just didn't feel the need to do so. It wasn't like the spells I had were inadequate for the task at hand. Having a half-dozen lightning spears being cast at the same time just felt like overkill. Though, she did have a point. It was probably something I should work on, regardless. Even if I didn't think I needed the additional firepower, it didn't hurt to be prepared.

"I just don't," I answered with a shrug. A bit of a cop-out, I know. Rias simply nodded in understanding.

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Ok, the sooner I get this done the better. I landed lightly on the concrete, looking at an abandoned warehouse. I had my parent's blessing on this, but the sooner I was home, the sooner they didn't have to worry.

If Rias and Sona were right, then this was where one of Kouh's new stray Devil's was laying low. They had tried to remove the bugger, but he had proven quite the nuisance, seemingly vanishing whenever they were around as if he had sensed their presence and made a run for it.

That's why I was here, after dark, with no form of backup. If there was one thing about the whole 'working under Devil's' thing at first, it would have to be this. Stray Devil's were an issue and a threat to just about everyone. That, and they were typically murder's who had gone mad with power, becoming something no longer sane. No better than a rabid animal. Killing them saved a lot of people's lives, which is why I had no problem with what I was about to do.

They hoped that a human would keep the Stray from running away. Effectively, I was bait. I didn't like that part of the plan at all. But if it was running away, unlike the one I had fought alongside Rias and her peerage, it was either extremely weak or extremely smart. I released the spell I was holding, sending dozens of candlelight orbs into the darkness, before stepping through the broken door.

Even with my spell lighting the way, it was still quite dark. The shadow's seemed to twist and move outside of the flickering light. I remember reading that human's fear of the dark is one of our strongest instincts. I agreed with the statement, that was sure. My eyes were constantly moving, twitching left and right, up and down.

I heard a clatter of cans to my right, aluminum hitting concrete overwhelming the silence with ease. I released another swarm of candlelights, only to reveal a small rat, which quickly broke back off into the darkness. That didn't calm my nerves in the slightest, as I struggled to bring my heart rate down. Of course, the stray wasn't going to be stupid enough to do that. It presumably lived here, it wouldn't to knocking around bottles like that.

The room was a dead end anyway, so I moved on, continuing my search. I stayed in the main halls, marking any large empty rooms to return too once I had finished. I paused, turning my head up and behind me. There was a tingling feeling that ran down my spine. I felt like I was being watched. Was it aware that I was aware?

That was when I heard something. Voices. Human voices. Was it some form of bait? Were they lured here? This was now very concerning. If they were aware of the supernatural, they were being completely stupid. If not, I didn't have any spells to alter memories. Personally, such magic felt to skeevy for my tastes, and I was never in a situation where it actually might be required. Still, I just wasn't going to leave them here, especially with a Stray Devil running around. I frowned as I got closer, beginning to be able to make out words. They were speaking in English?

It wasn't the English I had become used to in Japan. It wasn't much if any accent I could detect, anyway. Well, not a Japanese accent. If anything, they sounded slightly British. Now I was more puzzled than before. What would two British people be doing this late at night at an abandoned warehouse?

I peeked around the corner, seeing the two. Yeah, robes with hoods that covered the enter body. That wasn't suspicious at all. Oh, and the swords. I frowned. Who were these people? Them being regular humans was no longer on the table. And they were in the same place I was. Where they here to hunt the Stray too? If that was true, then our goals aligned, but I paused. I doubted the Fallen would try anything after what happened recently. That left two options. A third party, or Church exorcists.

I wanted to swear. From one problem, onto the next. Should I deal with this now, or should I wait? I frowned again. What was I thinking? I didn't know anything about the situation. For all I knew, they could be here with Rias and Sona's permission. Sure, that doesn't explain why they didn't say anything about it. Maybe they just thought I wouldn't cross paths with them?

Either way, it would be best to avoid trouble for the time being. But I would be contacting Rias as soon as I was done with this.

"So, you're the one they sent after me. I hope you have made your peace, for I am about the kill you," a voice rasped from behind me. Oh, right, the Stray. I was so concerned about the two strangers I had forgotten I was supposed to be looking for it. Well, it seems like it found me. A small orb of candlelight floated upwards, between me and what I assumed was Devil's face.

Until I snapped my fingers, causing the spell to explode in a flash of blinding light. I was much less affected, with my back turned to the spell. The Devil, which was vulnerable to light anyway, wasn't that fortunate. It's scream of pain echoed throughout the hollow interior of the building. Well, that was my position revealed, not that it was going to matter in a few seconds. As the stray behind me was bellowing, rubbing at its eyes, I turned around releasing two lightning bolts that slammed into its fur-covered chest.

The Stray's face was surprisingly goat-like, as was the rest of the body. I closed the distance, forming a different spell. A modified version of lightning spear, but rather, it functioned as a stake. Unlike the last I had come across, it seemed much smaller and far less intimidating. I brought the stake down, puncturing straight through the chest.

I looked down at the body. Part of me wanted to feel sick. After all, I had just killed something. But this was something without a soul, without morals. It was the right thing to do.

"Hold up!" One of the two shouted behind me. I resisted the urge to turn around. I still had no idea who these people were, and what their intentions were. I did my job, and they weren't in harm's way anymore, so it was time for me to bolt.

"Sorry, but no," I muttered. A flick of my wrist returned all the candlelight's I had spread throughout the facility on top of my location, forming a wall of light to cover my escape. Sure, it wouldn't do anything, but it might be enough to give them pause.

It did. I was able to make it out of the building and into the air, fading away into the night sky. Now, how exactly do I get home from here?

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I was honestly hoping to get through most of everything set up for the next overall arc, but that seems like that will take another chapter. More than a few scenes I've had planned out for quite some time, and I'm really happy to finally get to this point.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed reading, and thank you for the continued support and criticism.


	10. Chapter 10

The clank of metal against ball was a nostalgic feeling for me. I hadn't done anything baseball-related in years. Originally, I had no intention of getting dragged into the ball tournament. Not being a part of any clubs left me with only class-related stuff. I had no idea what any of the events would be on a class level.

The ball Issei hit flew through the air, going a considerable distance. Meanwhile, I raised my mitt, catching a ball thrown my way by Akeno with a satisfying impact. The mitt itself felt a bit tight, as a flexed my fingers as much as it would let me.

"Good catch," she complimented, as I threw the ball as a grounder, skimming across the dirt. She scooped it up with the grace and elegance I expected from her.

"Now! We'll be practicing a knock! Put on your gloves and spread out everyone!" Rias hollered. She seemed to be in quite good spirits about this.

"I'm just happy the Student Council agreed for you to be on our team," Issei said as he ran past me towards the outfield.

Yeah, that had been a debate. I worked for both of them, and as such, it made a degree of sense. Sure, in a direct physical head to head, I wasn't going to probably play much of a tipping roll, but ultimately, they agreed on Rias counting me as a member of their club for this. Still, a team made almost solely of Devils meant this competition was pretty much ours to take.

Rias's first ball went toward Asia. A high fly, an easy catch for almost everyone here. Unfortunately, Asia had no sporting sense, something I couldn't blame her for, given her abnormal childhood. It came down between her legs as she let out a shriek before the ball bounced off behind her.

"Asia! If you fail to catch it, go after it!" Rias ordered as Asia began to chase down the ball.

"Next is Yuuto!" Oh come on, that wasn't even necessary! Kiba was easily the fastest among us, there was no need to test him. He wouldn't just let a ball… hit… him… on the head. Ok, what just happened? Was I seeing things? Because what I just saw shouldn't be real in any way shape or form.

Then again, Kiba had been a bit off for a bit, now that I thought about it. He normally seemed, well, like a knight. Chivalrous, kind, compassionate, honorable. And generally, he seemed quite happy most of the time as well. But now, he seemed almost lifeless, maybe even depressed.

For seemingly no reason, at that. And seeing Issei's face betray a sense of worry, but didn't think I was getting cut out of the loop this time. I was too far away to say anything on the matter as he tossed the ball back to Rias. Regardless, I was going to talk to him after this. This was not Kiba's normal behavior, and there had to be something that caused the change. I wanted to know what that was, and do something to help.

"Okay, Continue," Rias shouted, sending another ball into the air, this one heading my direction. Yeah, this did take me back. Back before Devils, Dragons, and magic. Where evenings were spent not on homework, but having fun.

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"Alright, Kiba. Are you okay?" I had managed to corner Kiba after baseball practice. Not sure how I managed to corner an individual faster than the fastest man alive, but I'd certainly take it.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I really shouldn't have been surprised by Kiba's response.

"Well, beyond the fact that you let yourself get beaned in the head with a baseball," I narrowed my eyes, before letting out a sigh of frustration. "Look, if you don't want to talk about it, I understand. But if you need someone to talk too, I'm more than willing to listen."

Kiba seemed to give me a strange look. "Thank you for your offer, but I'm fine."

I had to resist an eye roll. Many things Kiba was, and fine he was most certainly not. But I wasn't going to force the issue. Doing that would just make Kiba more unwilling to talk. Of course, letting whatever it was that was bothering him sit and fester wouldn't be a good idea either. I just hoped he would see that.

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Out of all the sports that were on the table, the one I prayed the most that we didn't get was American Football. That was my one hope and true wish, as I took a bite out of my muffin. Another day of preparations awaited. Why not? Because, honestly, I feared for Issei's life. Sure that could be said with most of these events. A baseball below the belt was never fun on anyone.

And given the rumors that had been flying, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being the number 1 target on most people's hit lists. Of course, all the perverted Trio were pretty high on everyone's list. Personal friendship with Issei be damned, if I got a shot at the other two in something like dodgeball, I would take it. No questions asked.

Mental note, bring up buying a cup. One piece of uncomfortable sporting equipment, yes it was. Better than the alternative of being on the receiving end of a blow below the belt. Also a yes.

I inhaled the rest of my meal in record time. Rias wanted us there for further training, and she wasn't the only one. I was somewhat surprised classes had yet to be canceled due to this. No matter. Honestly, I think I was going to have fun during this event. I may not have been a fan of sportsball in general, but ultimately, I was having a good time with people I considered friends. One really cannot ask for more than that, at the end of the day.

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"Kaichou," I said in surprise. I had not expected her here in the clubhouse. And Saji as well. "I didn't know you would be here today." Sona simply nodded, while Saji looked somewhat surprised. He did realize I worked for both Rias and Sona, right?

I turned around as I heard the door open behind me, revealing Issei and Asia, the last two to arrive. They seemed just as surprised as I was by their presence.

"Oh, you didn't mention us to Hyoudo, Rias-senpai?" Saji asked, looking somewhat puzzled, or maybe smug, I really couldn't tell with his facial expression.

"I'm surprised you're here, but I already know the Student Council is made up of Devils," Issei said, as I started rubbing the back of my head. Sona raised an eyebrow, my nervous behavior being picked up on her radar.

"James?" Sona's voice had a slight hint of amusement to it.

"I may have mentioned the Student Council also being Devils in passing to these two, yes," I continued my awkward rubbing. "Sorry if I wasn't supposed to."

"I am Sona Sitri, heir to the Sitri household, one of the surviving 72 pillars," Sona spoke in the calm I had begun to associate with her as a whole. But one thing caught my ear. Household? Sitri?

"Members of the Pillar clans are what one would consider Devil nobility," Albion spoke, feeding me information. I paused.

"You mean I've been working for what amounts to noble Devil's this entire time, and you haven't told me?"

"I did not know for certain that their societal structure has remained the same since the last time I encountered any Devils. It would be unwise to assume."

Well, that was a startling revelation. I'd much rather not think about the implications of that for the time being. I mean, them being well off made sense, but I hadn't been aware that they were at the top of Devil Society.

"The school itself is actually under the control of the Gremory family during the night, meanwhile, the student council, house Sitri controls the school during the day," that made sense. Rias seemed to be in charge of all the nighttime Devil related things, while Sona handled the school itself. It fit Sona's personality, at any rate, and besides, she seemed to be quite good at it.

"You guys are getting a peaceful school life because of Kaichou and the Devil servants of Sitri. It wouldn't be bad for you to remember that you know?" I almost crossed my arm's at Saji's comment. Sure, I hadn't been around the Student Council much, mostly moving things around, but if they were responsible for a peaceful school life when Gremory's Peerage had their own things to deal with.

Like how on my first outing on formal Devil business, Issei was shot and nearly killed by a rogue exorcist.

"My name is Saji Genshirou. I'm both a second year and Koichou's pawn," Saji grinned, seemingly with pride. Issei seemed to be quiet please, almost happy. From what I understand, Issei was Rias's only pawn, seeing as he took up all eight of her pieces, so it wasn't like he was going to get a fellow pawn as part of Rias's Peerage. So meeting a fellow guy who was also a pawn nearby must have been a nice feeling. Saji, however, let out a sigh.

"It's kind of embarrassing. For one of the three prevs to be the same piece as me," I almost facepalmed at Saji's statement. Sure, Issei's habits weren't exactly something I approved of and hoped to correct, what Saji had said was quite rude.

"What did you say?" Issei stammered, as his face started to take more of an angry expression. I sighed. I did not just avoid a dragon fight a few days ago to have one now.

"Alright, dragons, behave," I stepped between the two, hoping to give them pause to de-escalate. There was a pause. I'd much rather not destroy the room.

"Saji, stop it," Sona order, bringing Saji back into line, which I took as my cue to step out of the distance between the two. Issei received the message well enough. "The reason we came here is to introduce our new servants among fellow High-Class devils that both use this school as our base. This meeting is to introduce you and Rias's servants, Hyoudou-kun and Asia-san."

"If you are my servant, then don't make a shame out of me," Sona continued. "However, even as you are right now, Saji, you wouldn't be able to win against Hyoudou-kun. He played a pivotal role in Rias's defeat of the third son of the Phoenix family. Consuming eight pawn pieces is something one cannot ignore."

I heard about it from Issei. Asia had been forced to retire, what amounted to taking a piece in this strange version of live chess, leaving Issei and Rias being only two left standing, with a guy called Raiser Phoenix and his queen remained in opposition. Issei managed to unlock Balance Breaker, partially, allowing him to do battle with Raiser on somewhat equal footing.

It still hadn't been enough. I had already figured out why regeneration was powerful. That alone would tip the scales, and Issei, even while much stronger wasn't able to hold onto a state like Balance Breaker for long. So, as a final gambit, he took every remaining boost he had and passed it onto Rias.

It worked. Issei may have been forced to retire, but Raiser didn't have long for the match either. Still, I found the idea of Issei being able to apply his boosts to other people to be an interesting power. I wonder if it was possible to have a similar technique, taking one person's power, and rather than taking it for myself, passing it on to someone else. Worth trying at a later date in my opinion.

"Eight pieces!" Saji shouted, before seeming to stammer for a bit. A whole set. However, I was getting curious about how many pieces I was worth. I didn't ask questions about how the whole "Evil Piece" system worked in the first place. Still, Saji seemed in shock that Issei had so many pieces, double his own. Did Longinus Sacred Gears take that much by default, or did it calculate future growth as part of it?

Questions to ask for a later day, I suppose. However, since they were both here at the moment, there was something I might as well get out of the way.

"Remember how I mentioned there was something I needed to talk to you two about after I got rid of that Stray Devil a few days ago?" I asked as Sona and Rias looking at each other.

"I do remember you mentioning how you wanted to speak to both of us about it, yes," Rias said, nodding. "I suppose this is as good of a time as any, seeing that we are both here."

"There were two other people roaming around the abandoned warehouse. I wasn't able to get a good look at them, but they had swords and were wearing hooded robes," I explained, as Sona and Rias share what could be a concerned look. "I think they might be exorcists, but once I dealt with the Stray I left in short order."

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention," Sona said, as everyone shared a concerned look. Well, everyone but Kiba, who seemed to jolt upright after my statement. That was noteworthy. I'd have to try and keep an eye on him. Though I bit down my curiosity. I already told Kiba if he wanted to talk, he knew exactly where he could find me.

"At any rate, Hyoudou-kun, Asia-san. My servant doesn't have as much combat experience as the two of you, so he still has some rough attitude in him. Please, try to get along with him," Sona had a cold grin to her, one that I honestly expected. No nonsense here.

"Of course!" Asia's shining declaration would surprise nobody. Such a precious innocence that needed to be protected at all costs.

Saji was quite glad, shaking her hand in an extremely vigorous manner. I had to bite back a chuckle. Asia was simply adored by pretty much everyone, and for good reason. What was truly making me bite back a laugh was Issei.

His protectiveness of Asia reminded me of how protective I could get with my sister. Either through threatening violence or more, subtle attempts at retribution. Like ruining the tree hiding spot the other two out of the trio found that was actually good, for example. As much as he would like to use the old fashion lightning on a cloudless day thing, blowing up a tree, and potentially two perverts was, sadly, not going to fly.

Issei was far less polite than Asia. I wasn't sure if what I was observing was considered good-natured trash talk, or just simple trash talk.

"The members of the Student Council are stronger than the members of your club," was Saji's final boast. That wasn't something I was sure on. Kiba, Issei, and Asia all had Sacred Gears, while Saji and Tsubaki were the only Sacred Gear users of their peerage. Sona's peerage did have a number's advantage, with double the Bishops, and double the number of individual pawns.

Maybe. I'd wonder if I'd get to see a Rating Game between the two at some point. Though a look at Rias and Sona revealed that they appeared somewhat exasperated by their pawn's antics. Who knows, maybe there was another dragon rivalry on the horizon.

"I think this is enough of an introduction for our rookies," Sona took a sip of what had to have been a cup of tea. "Then we will pardon ourselves now."

"And Rias," I watched a slight grin form of Sona's face. "I will be looking forward to the ball tournament." Rias returned the look. Oh, so there was a friendly rivalry here, it seemed like. And I was caught right in the middle of it. Joy.

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"They weren't supposed to arrive until after the tournament. Why are they here this ahead of what we agreed upon?"

"Either they wanted to get a head start on looking for the stolen Holy Swords, or they have a secondary objective."

"Such as?"

"Remember all those magical fluctuations after the Fallen attack. It's possible they are trying to do the same thing we are. Finding the source."

"We still haven't found anything either. So why would the Church be interested now?"

"If it is who we think it is, then why wouldn't the Church be interested? She fell off everyone's radar close to two decades ago. And everyone is interested in getting her back on it, if only for safety's sake."

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I stretched, moving my muscles. Today was the day, the day of the ball tournament. I felt a grin forms on my face as I did the splits, moving from side to side. I prayed the rain would hold off until it was supposed to arrive because doing all this for nothing would kind of stink. Me mentioning the possible exorcists didn't last long either, as Kiba was still out of it. Everyone was doing something to prepare for the day's activities, even Koneko. Even if that something was looking at a rulebook.

Our class match was baseball. It would be fun, but not as fun as the club matches. I managed to get a peek on the way over, and if the club level sport was what I thought it was. Then, well, I was going to have a very good time. I spotted Rias making her way back over from where the event boards were. Please let her confirm it, please!

"We have won this match already," Rias chuckled to herself.

"So, Buchou, what sport are we playing?" Issei asked, a puzzled look on his face.

"Dodgeball!"

I bit down a mad laugh that threatened to erupt in my throat. Yes, yes. This match was very much in the bag indeed. Only if Rias knew how true that statement was.

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But before I could get to have my fun, there was the rest of the event to get through. I was happy tennis wasn't a part of our classes event, but Rias and many of the other senior class girl's looked like they were having fun. Rias and Sona didn't have much competition, in all honesty. Well, until they ran into each other. Sure, they weren't exactly cutting loose, but they were taking it extremely seriously. But given that they were Devil's, they would be the only ones to likely give each other a proper challenge.

I shook my head at Issei and Saji's antics. After Saji's statement, that wouldn't be much of a surprise that Issei wanted the occult research club to win in as many places as we could manage. But I wasn't going to be getting involved in this one. I wasn't going to pick a favorite between the two people who were, effectively, my bosses.

While lots of the crowd were also cheering, my eyes flicked over to my sister, who was strangely quiet. Normally, she'd be cheering for Rias right now, vigorously at that. Her not doing so was, well, odd. Then again, she wasn't exactly talkative this morning, either. Was it just me, or did she look a bit pale? Was she coming down with something? I certainly hope not. Not exactly the time of year one would get sick, but then again. If so, I hope she doesn't push herself too much.

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Grounder, not exactly a line drive, but close enough. Sure, what I had hit wasn't enough to be a home run, but that wasn't what I wanted to do. It was, however, enough for me to get to second base, and another to score a run, just as I planned. Given how the other team had one of the pitchers from the baseball club, we were doing well.

If one considered losing by three, well, now two, as doing well. It was mostly Issei and I was doing most of the heavy lifting for our team. Statistically speaking, the opposing team having this many people who played the sport was low. Well, that's just how the cookie crumbles some days. I winced. It was Asia's turn up to bat next, and her subsequent strikeout, while sad, surprised nobody.

The opposing team had made it clear that no mercy was to be given. I hoped Kiba would be able to turn things in our favor, though, and my hope was misplaced. Whatever it was that was bothering Kiba, it was getting worse. It had been after I mentioned the exorcists too. Did Kiba have some type of beef with the church, and if so, why was it coming around now?

"Kiba hit the ball!" I heard Issei shout from the dugout, matching my sentiments to a fine pointed T. I don't know why, but Issei managed to get through to him, as the ball went clear over the fence, marking a home run. Well, we might not be entirely out of this yet. It's now tied. We might just be able to win this after all.

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Our victory was narrow but no less miraculous. But for me, it was time for the main event. Dodgeball, the pinnacle of the American physical education system. The ultimate indoor sport where, yes, hitting someone in the face was perfectly legal, so long as you did it with a ball.

I suppressed the mad cackling that tried to build its way up in my throat. This was my time to shine! Behold, the ultimate power of the American PE class!

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"What's wrong with your brother? He looks like he's about to start laughing for some reason."

"What's the sport again?"

"Dodgeball."

"Really? It's dodgeball? Oh. This is going to end badly."

"How?"

"We're from America, remember?"

"I don't see what that has to do with it."

"Winter weather can be problematic. As such, it's mostly indoor activities. Nobody liked swimming, and basketball only became popular once dodgeball was banned. As such, every single gym period, for several months of the year, we played dodgeball."

"So you're saying your brother is very good at it."

"Yes. A major part of the reason why the school district stopped banned dodgeball from being played."

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"Everyone! Let's put this on as a team!" Issei was handing out some type of headband, with Occult Research Cult written on them. Issei made this, by hand?

"This is impressive," I nodded my head, accepting it and wrapping it around my head. "Thank you." I wasn't the only one giving praise for Issei's handiwork. I'm honestly surprised. I didn't think Issei was this good with his hands. It seemed like he had deeper depths than I thought he did. Then again, I used to only think of him as a pervert being his only trait.

Still, Kiba seemed quite out of it, and I was starting to get tired. I'd rather not force the issue, but if that's what needed to be done for Kiba get his head unstuck from where it was he placed it, then I'd take it. But now wasn't going to be the time for a heart to heart.

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Issei being the target of everyone's fire had proven to be a blessing.

"Aim for Hyou- Ack!" the poor fool didn't get to finish his sentence as I scored a hit to his chest. The more they focused on trying to remove Issei from play as some form of revenge, the more freedom they gave me to do as I please. I mean, a few were thrown my way, as some of the baseball club were wising up as I whittled their numbers away one by one.

I would have to thank Issei for his brave and valiant sacrifice that would lead our team to victory.

"This ends now!" I heard someone shout, drawing my eyes to them and alerting me to the ball heading towards me. With the early warning, I was able to grab the sphere that had once promised a knock out from the match, plucking it straight out of the air. An instant out in accordance with the rules. Oh, and we would get on of ours back, normally. But seeing as nobody had been hit yet, more accurately, Issei hadn't been hit yet, there was nobody on our team to bring back in.

Yet everyone seemed to be focusing on Issei. It was kind of insulting. I'd proven that I was the much larger threat to everyone on the board, and yet, here people were, favoring him when it came to a target compared to me. Maybe it was simply because my perception of Issei had changed, compared to the rest of the school population.

I wouldn't lie to myself. If this had been before everything that had happened, learning that Devil indeed rules this school, I would likely be one of them.

"Sorry, Issei, but you seem to be relegated to being bait," I shrugged, throwing the ball in hand, getting another out as it bounced off their head. The brown-haired boy shot me an annoyed look as I let out a chuckle. But it seemed like the other's had already come to the same conclusion as I did.

It didn't take much longer anyway. Most of their team was out by that point, so I let the other's scavenge out the rest of the pieces. But our victory wasn't in doubt, not even for a second. However, there was still a problem with Kiba. Yeah, I was kind of fed up with this whole thing. Sure, we didn't need Kiba to be participating to win, but this was simply too far out of character.

"If I may," I asked Rias, eyes flicking over to her, then to Kiba. She frowned, seeing what I was trying to hint at. I could tell this was troubling her, too.

"Very well, but try to be back before the next match starts," she said, picking off the last person standing.

The second the match was over, I was dragging Kiba towards a place we could talk in private. I didn't care what type of rumors this spawned. Kiba was getting help whether he liked it or not!

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"All right, spill. What's bothering you?" I demanded, crossing my arms, expression as stern as I could make it.

"It's nothing," Kiba's voice was strangely monotone, matching his behavior perfectly.

"I'll be blunt, Kiba. That's bullshit," Kiba's eyes seemed to widen out of surprise. "Everyone can see that you aren't acting like you usually do. So I'll ask again. What's bothering you?"

Kiba seemed to shuffle his feet, unwilling to look me in the face. The first step to healing or fixing something was admitting there was a problem in the first place.

"I'd much rather not talk about it," Kiba said. Finally, an honest answer out of him, which was better than I was getting.

"That's fair," I returned, "as I said before Kiba, if you want too, I'm more than willing to listen. And if you don't want to talk to me about it, I'd recommend a psychiatrist. They are paid to help people work through their problems."

"But for right now? Live a little, and have some fun," I grinned slightly, trying to raise Kiba's spirits. "Feeling bad about something you can't control isn't going to fix anything."

"You're right," Kiba's smile was shaky, almost insincere. Like he was trying to prop something back up. I gave him a pat on the back, trying to be as warm and comforting as possible.

"Then let's head back," I started, only before an announcement calling us back cut me off.

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Sure, while Kiba was far less active than he normally was during the rest of the event, but on the same hand, it was a drastic improvement from what had been Kiba's norm over the past few days. I was personally, thankful for the improvement. Sure, what I had said to him wasn't a perfect fit, and I hadn't expected it to be.

Whatever the problem was, I hoped he would take my psychiatrist suggestion seriously. If a regular human one didn't work, I would be surprised if there weren't Devil ones as well. Or even just one that was aware of the supernatural, if that was the ultimate root cause.

Our first-place finish was never in doubt, even more so with Kiba's aid. Still, on a team of all devils, I was the highest when it came to points scored. Even if none of them were going all out, that was still something I could take pride in. Behold, the supreme power of the America Physical Education system!

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"It's really coming down out there," I muttered. The rain had held off, but only barely. I was hoping there would be enough time to walk home, so I had left my umbrella there, as had my sister. However, the downpour was not something I cared to walk through, and as such, we had sought refuge in the main building. Hopefully, our dad would be here soon.

"Is that, Kiba?" she asked, picking up on some movement outside the door we were looking out of. I couldn't see anything, just a figure of a person without an umbrella. I honestly, for the life of me, couldn't tell. The rain wasn't that cold, so I doubted if it was, he was in any real danger. Still, why was he leaving like he was?

Well, if it wasn't Kiba, I would just apologize later. I opened the door, shouting out his name, hoping to get it across through the rain. The figure looked at my direction for a few seconds, before bolting, faster than I could even react. Yeah, that was Kiba alright. But what the hell was going on here?

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Well, that's the end of chapter ten. Now that I look at all the stories I've written, only four have made them into the triple digits, and of those four, only two I consider to be truly ok stories.

For all of those who enjoyed this story so far, I hope you all continue to do so, and thank you for your continued support of this story.


	11. Chapter 11

"You aren't going to school today," my mother was set in her demands. Normally, I would be protesting, but given it wasn't directed at me, and given the circumstances.

"Mom, I'm fine," my sister crossed her arms, trying to make herself seem as defiant as possible. Her sickly complexion and sweaty skin made such a task difficult.

"You spent the last five minutes throwing up breakfast. You're staying put," I didn't entirely blame my sister for trying to argue with mom on this one. How Japanese school's handled sick students was much different from America. So naturally, my sister didn't want to miss class, especially for a school like Kouh.

But throwing up wasn't exactly something the school would want to deal with anyway. She was being stubborn about this. Understandably so, yes, but stubborn none the less.

"Look, I can talk to your teacher's and collect everything you've missed today," I offered, hoping to get this argument completely done with before I had to go. Koneko shared a class with my sister, so getting access to notes wouldn't be an issue. Hopefully. If that didn't work, I'd have to find another way to get class notes. How hard could it be, right?

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I had forgotten, quite swiftly so, family matters weren't the only standing issue when it came to school. That person had one name, and that name was Kiba. He seemed considerably worse than when I had last seen him for certain. I thought I was beginning to get through to him, but either something went wrong or Kiba had a better poker face than I thought.

While he first seemed depressed and melancholic, now he was storming, like a thundercloud threatening to break loose. I didn't know much about my sister's Sacred Gear and all its effects, but it at times reacted strongly to extreme conditions. One day a few years back she spent most of the day sick, and later that day a funnel cloud had drifted over our house.

Was it picking up on the future, trying to warn her of some disaster? Did it have something to do with Kiba? He didn't seem like the type to take his anger out on people around him, but I didn't have a good grasp of his character. Not as good of one as I believed I had.

Okay, first thing, deal with my sister's issue of being sick and needing notes. Or, at the least, a lesson plan. I had left home early for a reason, to get this done as quickly as possible. With my sister ill with the flu, I'd prefer to remain close at hand when I could. Mom would be going back to work soon, and as a nurse on the night shift, she needed her sleep. With dad working the standard nine to five, I might just end up being the one taking care of her if Lily didn't get better soon.

Did Twilight Healing work for diseases? That was a line of thought I hadn't considered. Maybe that was something I should ask Asia about today.

No, focus. Get stuff done now, worry about supernatural solutions to your problems at a later date.

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"Your mother contacted us earlier. I'm sorry to hear that your sister is sick," I can't exactly remember which of my sister's teachers this was. What I do know is that Lily was well-liked by most of the school staff. Good student, better than me in most subjects, and wasn't a cause for trouble, unlike many other students.

She was a student that most teachers only dreamed of having. Probably why I hadn't been getting much trouble for doing gathering up lesson plans and homework. Something to be thankful for in all this.

"I do hope your sister gets better soon," the teacher continued.

"Thank you. So do I," I said, trying to stay on my best manners. I smiled, slipping the stuff into my backpack, which was starting to get stuffed. I just need to collect things from one more class, then I would deposit this somewhere safe. Spending the day carrying around a massive pile of notes in addition to my stuff I would most certainly not. I wasn't a turtle. I tried carrying all my books and schoolwork my first year of High School back in America. Never again.

Now, let's see. Who exactly is the last person I needed to grab stuff from? That would be… my slight grin swiftly went the other way, becoming a frown. Well, crap. I suppose that serves me right, saving the one who would be the most trouble for last. He didn't like my sister, and he certainly didn't like me. Honestly, we both returned the favor in full. Mercifully, as a second-year student, I didn't have to deal with him much.

My sister was far less fortunate. Well, not beating around the bush. This was going to be a royal pain.

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I knocked on the office door. Part of me was tempted to just simply dodge the issue entirely on this front. I might be able to find Koneko in time before school started, but things were already cutting close. Sure, it would probably be easier to go through the small Devil compared to this man. No, it would be much easier. Even if simply he could trade favors with her.

Well, sadly, I could be just as bullheaded as my sister. Excuses, excuses, but that was why I was doing this the hard way.

"Come in," the man spoke, as I opened the door. It swung open, and I watched the man's face twist in disgust. This was already off to a swimming start.

"I just got off the phone with your mother," he scowled. That I did believe. He looked more pissed off than usual. But seeing how his anger was normally somewhere between Ares and Khorne, that wasn't too surprising. Honestly, mom probably read him the riot act. A nurse she may be, but an angry mother was something anyone with a brain cell shouldn't want to cross.

Something about the look on his face though made me think he didn't care, either. Which was great. Just, great. Some moments I just wanted to ignore Japan's politeness, and give the old coot a piece of my mind. Then again, I doubted the punishment would be any different than in America. To be blunt, he certainly wasn't worth being punished over.

"So, will I be able to get those notes for my sister's lecture?" I questioned, keeping my voice flat as possible.

"No. If your sister cared enough to be here herself, instead of trying to use her mother and her delinquent brother to intimidate me while being too lazy to show up herself," he almost spat out, as I struggled to control the muscles in my face.

For starters, I wasn't a delinquent, not even by a stretch. Yeah, sure, my grades were generally what passed for above average, but I didn't get into fights, and one time I did, it was justified. Secondly, it took ten whole minutes to talk Lily down from trying to come to school. Just because you didn't like it you old fart didn't give you the right to act like a child over it.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, I worked for a boss you didn't know you had! An aggravating secret to keep for sure, one I desperately wanted to rub in the man's smug-looking face. Exhaling, I focused the tension out of my body. My basic assessment was right. He wasn't worth the stress or annoyance. And I still had a solid plan B.

"Very well then. Sorry to bother you," I nodded, taking my leave. Part of me always wondered what exactly crawled up that guy's rear end. It had to be there for a few decades at least.

A glance at my phone after I closed the door revealed the time. Well, classes were starting in a few minutes, which meant trying to run down Koneko was out. Guess I was staying after class after all.

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"The Holy-Sword Project?" to say I was perplexed was an understatement. Like much of the supernatural world, I was aware of the existence of such powerful weapons, but never researched the specifics behind such items. My lackluster education continued to bite me in the ass. What I had collected knowledge on was that Holy-Sword users were rare. They were quite literally chosen, with such rarity those holy artifacts might as well be Scared Gears in their own right.

So, no, I wouldn't be surprised at all that the Church would research means of artificially creating a Holy-Sword user. Honestly, it would be a bigger surprise that they hadn't taken that avenue. While I didn't see eye to eye with the Church, it being just as flawed as any other organization comprised of human beings, to think they would murder orphans for such knowledge left a foul taste in my mouth.

"Bochou saved Kiba from the project several years back," Issei explained. Yeah, that would explain why Kiba didn't want to talk about it. I figured he had gone through trauma in the past, but damn. Being a survivor of something like that wouldn't be easy. The fact Kiba was able to keep a mask on for so long was, well, troubling. Not that I could blame him. What would I do if I were in his shoes? I could easily imagine it, burning and raging against the Church until nothing remained but ash.

The path to hell is paved with good intentions. But what type of 'good intentions' where this idiot behind that project on! You don't just justify murdering children like that. Amoral and disgusting, if there was an afterlife hell, then I hope the cruel bastards behind the whole thing burned there.

"One of the pictures my mom showed last week was one with me and my childhood friend," Issei continued, as I looked at him puzzled. "It has a Holy-Sword in it." I winced. That would explain the original deterioration of Kiba's mood. I hoped Issei didn't blame himself for what was happening. This was entirely new information for me too. I paused.

"Does that mean there's still a Holy-Sword in town?" I asked, somewhat panicked. If that person was still around, and Kiba went looking for them, that would cause a lot of problems. But who was this friend of Issie's? I didn't know if he and the trio went that far back, and outside of me and Rias's Peerage, I don't know exactly how many friends he had. I certainly hadn't met them.

"No, she moved to Britain a long time ago, when we were still kids," Issei explained, and I had to stop my eyebrows from rising. She? That was interesting. And, again, like with Asia, before potentially concerning.

"I shouldn't need to repeat myself about what I said about Shakespear," I said, completely straight-faced. Childhood friend, across battle lines. I know the tropes. Combined Asia and most like Rias appeared to have romantic feelings towards the guy, a third wasn't entirely out of the picture. But like Issei, said, she was in Britain, so the odds of that ever really becoming an issue was nearly non-existent. Them even meeting again had such low odds.

"She showed up at my house yesterday," Issei said, completely straight-faced that for a moment I thought he was joking. It took a moment to process the look on Asia's face as well for me to realize he was serious. The revelation nearly made me spit up my drink, hard. Oh, please don't tell the potential exorcists were the real deal! And one of them was Issei's childhood friend?

"And they want to discuss something with Bochuo," he frowned. If I had to take a stab in the dark, she likely figured out Issei was a devil as well. I felt for the guy. That honestly had to be quite painful. Still, this was only going to continue to grow into an absolute mess of a situation.

"My condolences," I offered, "That's rough." Yeah, something like that would be a raw hand. Being forced to separate from a long-time friend over battle lines sucked. Still, this was one mess of a situation. Seriously, the only way things could get any worse was if they had Holy-Swords themselves.

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Murphy's Law. I hate it. I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns. I still needed to talk to Koneko about the notes situation, but our guests were already present. The room itself, tethering on a knife's edge. Holy-Swords were powerful artifacts, and I could feel that power. I could only imagine how bad it was for everyone else, being near a weapon that was a bane to Devil-kind.

Thankfully, no-one was being outright murderous, other than Kiba, who seemed to barely restrain himself from cutting the two girls' down. I didn't get their names, but only one had removed their hood, the one with brown hair and twin-tails. Which one was Issei's friend? The one not showing her face, or the other?

"Recently, the Excaliburs that were kept in the Vatican, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox Churches were stolen," it was the lady without her hood that finally cut through the silence. Stolen, and from multiple locations? That would be impossible! How could a singular blade be stolen from different places? The only way that could happen is if Excalibur was no longer a single blade.

Could Excalibur be shattered and reforged?

"It is distinctly possible. Excalibur was a powerful weapon, and if it's fragments held even a shard of its power, then the Church would loathe letting it slip through their fingers," Albion spoke, nodding slightly. Yes, that does make sense. I certainly wouldn't let something that powerful fade away into nothing.

"Ise-kun, Excalibur broke in the war a long time ago," the brown-haired girl explained. Kun? Then she was likely his friend.

"Now it looks like this," the other girl spoke for the first time, reaching for her blade, cloth surrounding it falling away. "This is Excalibur."

Issei took a step back, shuttering, not that I can blame him. Power rolled off the blade's surface in waves. But to me, it had all the danger of a merely powerful sword, rather than rip and tear its way through my defenses. She seemed to notice my lack of hesitation, raising an eyebrow in my direction.

"Excalibur was broken in the war. What fragments remained were collected and reforged into seven blades," her voice was monotone, no, not entirely? But it was cold, almost harsh. So, they made seven different swords from Excalibur's remains. And three were stolen. That meant four remained in the hands of the Church.

And if one was here, it would make sense for another Excalibur to be in her partner's hands.

"The one I hold is Excalibur Destruction. The Catholic Church controls it," she continued to explain. Excalibur Destruction. Yeah, that was a pleasant name. She began wrapping the blade up in the cloth, as I felt it's power being cut off. So, they suppressed the natural power of the sword, making it harder to detect, or was it just for safety's sake? Maybe Excalibur's power wasn't split evenly across all seven pieces?

If it wasn't for the ribbon-like thing tied around the brunette's arm starting to move on its own, I never would have noticed it. The hypotheses about the Excalibur fragments may have been correct after all. Even as it shifted into a sword, hilt resting in her hand, I never would have guessed it was in actuality, a weapon.

"This one is Excalibur Mimic," she said. A shape-changing sword. That give me some interesting questions. Sure, she'd already shown that it could be easily disguised, but what were its limits? Could it split apart, becoming two swords? Could it become a key for breaking into a home or picking a lock? Did it's different forms take on a different mass?

That was a sword who's effectiveness drew from its user's creativity. She actually might be the most dangerous of the two, depending on what she could think up of. If she just used it like a whip, I was going to be extremely disappointed.

"Irina, there is no reason to speak on the power of your Excalibur, is there?" the bluenette questioned her partner. Irina was her name. I made a note of that, if little else. Nor had she said anything about Devils. She was covering her bases, so to speak. Her trust in me seemed to be as much as she had in the Devil's in the room. Which, in her defense, was perfectly fair. I'd consider her foolish if she did somehow trust me in any capacity.

"Ara Xenovia," Irina started. So Ara Xenovia was the bluenette's name. Yeah, I was going to call her Xenovia going forward. I refused to believe she had the first name of Ara. "Given the current situation, we must be able to form a trustworthy relationship with them. Even if they are Devil's. Besides, I wouldn't lose too any of them."

So, Irina was pragmatic. That was a quality I could respect. The world could use more of that. Because, yeah, stolen Holy Swords? That was a big problem. A very, very big problem. I wasn't going to beat around the bush on this one. Someone was strong enough to steal close to half of the baby Excalibur's, and bring them here. To a town controlled by Devil's.

The question was why. A Devil wouldn't be able to use a Holy Sword at all, so if one was trying to pin the blame on them for the theft, well, then that person was an idiot. And if they concocted a plan that allowed them to, well, steal three of the most powerful blades that could be held in human hands from what had to be layer after layer of protection, then they would not be an idiot.

I'd much rather deal with a strong fool rather than a cunning weakling, and whoever this being was, they were likely mentally powerful while possessing enough raw physical strength to back it up. Of course, provided that this wasn't some false flag stuff used as an excuse to look into Devil controlled territory. I mean, come on, that had the first place one's thoughts would go.

Because, why would I believe that after several artifacts had been stolen, you would only send two people after them, into enemy territory against anything ranging from traitor's to your faction, the enemy whose territory you just sent them into without any support, to the third one lobbing stick's at the other two.

The only reason I hadn't called it out for the con this scenario appeared to be was because of its absurdity. This was so stupid that it simply couldn't be a lie. I outright refused to believe that if they were going to lie to us, then this was the one they chose. That, and the simple fact they brought two of the remaining four Excalibur's with them on this mission.

"So what exactly does that have to do with your presence here?" Rias questioned. The answer itself should be self-evident. If they were looking for Holy Swords, that meant they suspected them to have been brought here. That was the only logical conclusion. Japan wasn't exactly known for having a large Christian population, therefore, one could hide from the church with greater ease.

My eye's flicked back to Kiba, what Issei had told me over lunch still fresh in my head. He was pissed, without a doubt, understandably so. Thankfully, he was restraining himself from doing something stupid. While I could probably plow my way through Excalibur Mimic without much difficulty with Scale Mail, Excalibur Destruction, on the other hand, I was much less certain about. Could it pierce dragon hide? I'd much rather not find out.

"Simple. The one who stole the Excalibur's escaped to Japan and is hiding within this town," Xenovia spoke, confirming my conclusion. Still, this was all too concerning. Why? Why here?

"It seems like my territory is full of incidents," Rias sighed, resting her hand against her head. "Do you know who stole the Excalibur's?"

"It was the Grigori."

Grigori. I felt myself twitch slightly in anger. They were still here. In this town. I rapped my finger's against the palm of my hand as if to form a fist. Rias's eye's widened in shock, as did a few other's. Yes, it made perfect sense. Devil's couldn't take such weapons, so they, by process of elimination, would be the only ones in the Three Factions that actually could and would commit such a crime.

This was a big problem. My mind was already shifting gears, trying to figure out what the endgame for this was. Okay, so, on one hand, with have the Grigori in possession of three stolen Holy Swords. In a town controlled by Devil's, which could never use the things. Not only that, the Church already knew it was the Grigori, so blaming the theft on the Devil's wouldn't work. So the Church sends two Holy Sword users to reclaim them and bring them back to their respective Church's.

"We also have the identity of the primary culprit. A high ranking member of the Grigori, Kokabiel," she continued, and I had to cover my mouth to prevent the quite 'shit' I nearly let slip. Kokabiel? This situation was just continuing to get worse and worse. That was bad. A powerful Fallen Angel, among the strongest in existence. Like all Angel's, he'd been around since ancient times, even mentioned in the Bible itself.

This was bad. Mind numbingly bad. A being like that didn't even need a Holy Sword in the first place, such was the raw power behind such a being. Which only caused my questions to increase in number. But that explained why they sought us out. Kokabiel was a threat, and if he was, here, in this town, then putting aside grudge's were needed, especially with such a blatant violation of the ceasefire.

Could this be the cause of Lily's Sacred Gear acting up? This day was only getting worse and worse as it went on.

"We have sent several agent's to this town in secret to attempt to find the location of the stolen Excalibur's. All of them have so far died," were thing's this bad? If I were in charge, I would have already sent the army in after getting permission. Heck, even contact the Devil's, and tip them off that this was going on.

Of course, what I was hoping for was a pipe dream. Too much bad blood to even consider such a thing at all. Because, yeah, this might just call for such drastic measures.

"Our orders are to not have any Devil's interfere with our fight against the Fallen Angel's over the Excalibur's," the sentence nearly made my jaw drop. Out of all the dumb things that have happened today, that was now taking the cake. Was the Church trying to give him more Holy Swords? Because if their orders, were to tell us to not get, then there was no other way of putting it.

The Church had sent them on a suicide mission. And equipped them with Holy Swords to carry out their task. I was simply shocked. Rias, on the other hand, seemed quite annoyed by the announcement. Getting the Holy Swords out of town honestly seemed like a good idea, all thing's considered. Whether Fallen Angel's had to play by human rules when it came to those artifacts was irrelevant. A Holy Sword was dangerous to the Devil population in this town, so removing it from our hair would prove wise.

I'd imagine that's what Rias would like. And, honestly, having so many within Kiba's reach would likely prove problematic. He was chomping at the bit to go after two here for peaceful purposes. With the Fallen, he had his pick of guilt-free and unproblematic targets. Well, excluding the fact that a heavy hitter was in town.

That, as far as I was aware, we had no idea was even present within Kohu. I was doing overtime tonight, I could already feel it. Because worst-case scenario, I was going to be checking every damn hiding place I could think of for any sign of that Fallen Angel. It wasn't like I was going to sleep anyway, knowing a powerful entity like Kokabiel was running amuck.

"Are you thinking we would work together with the Fallen Angel's to remove Excalibur from the board?" Rias asked eye's narrowing.

"Headquarters believes the possibility exists."

My finger twitched, fighting off the urge to take my hand and slap it against my face. Yeah, sure I could see where they might be coming from with this. Each Excalibur was dangerous, extremely so for Devil's. But the Grigori were another enemy of the Devil's, and I wouldn't be surprised if their nature allowed them to utilize the Holy Blades in the first place. What would be the point of working with the Fallen on this one? Excalibur would be trading hands, from one enemy to another.

"The higher up's don't trust Fallen Angel's and Devils. Taking away the Holy Swords from God's side would benefit both groups. As such, an alliance wouldn't be out of the question. If you form an alliance with the Fallen Angel Kokabiel, we will have no choice but to eliminate everyone. Even if you are one of the Maou's sisters."

"Maou?" I asked internally, seeking some form of clarification on the term. Albion's chuckle did little to ease my nerves.

"It seems they were understating their status," Albion's voice caused me to twitch like he just found out the greatest joke ever told. Could dragon's go senile? Because if this was a joke, I wasn't getting it!

"What do you mean, understating?" I mentally shouted back.

"Maou is a title, held by the four rulers of the underworld. The Four Great Satans. It seems your boss isn't just Devil nobility, she's Devil royalty," Albion grinned, flashing teeth. "I have to admit, I'm impressed by your luck. It's likely Sona is as well, given how they are both close friends."

If anything Rias's glare seemed to have intensified. Which, with the newfound information brought to light, made sense. Xenovia had pretty much called her a potential traitor straight to Rias's face.

"If you know that I'm the sister of one of the Maou," she started, "then you must have multiple connections to higher-ups in the Church. We have not or will form an alliance with the Fallen Angel's. I swear it on the name of House Gremory. I would not do something to besmirch the reputation of our Maou!"

Rias's passion couldn't be denied, and I could feel the tennis in the air. It was broken by a light chuckle from Xenovia.

"Your word is good enough. I did have to warn you about Kokabiel hiding in town with the Holy Swords. If anything were to happen, I would be the one to get punished by those back at headquarters. Still, we can't ask for cooperation. Even if you form a temporary alliance with God's side, it'll affect the balance of power between the three factions. Especially when it's the little sister of a Maou." Xenovia went on, and I could feel the weight dispell from the room.

Though, I did have to disagree. Sure, an actual one paper alliance would likely be out of the question. But to expect anyone not to act when told there was someone dangerous in their territory was simply ridiculous. A mutualish goal existed here, and that task would lead to the same location. Kokabiel and the Excalibur's. Ignoring that was foolish to an extreme.

"Where exactly is the third person? I would assume they would be dispatched here with you," Rias asked, and I had a feeling I already knew the answer. Likely, to remain behind, as some last-ditch effort to keep the last of the Holy Swords out of Kokabiel's hands. Which, frankly, was incredibly dumb. He'd already taken three, two were being given to him on a silver platter, so collecting the final Excalibur fragments would be child's play.

"The final Excalibur wielder has remained behind to protect the last blade remaining in our possession in case Irina and I fail," Xenovia spoke with clarity, and my eye's narrowed. I figured it was a suicide mission. This was much too small of a force to reclaim any of the blades.

"So it's just the two of you? You are going to attempt to reclaim the Excalibur's from one of the leader's of the Fallen Angel's, with only the two of you? That is extremely reckless of you. Are you trying to get yourselves killed?" Rias stated, summarizing my concerns. Being able to wield a Holy Sword was a rare trait, combined with a long term training investment to make sure that wielder would be capable of doing their job to the best of their ability.

To throw that all aside on a suicide mission just didn't make sense to me. Maybe I was being too analytical, a bit too logical, with all this. But I can't wrap my brain around chucking away all those resources and effort aside, for effectively nothing at all.

"Yes," was the answer both girls gave, and I nearly gave in to the growing urge to facepalm. Their level of faith was astounding, I would admit willingly, but this was suicide, no matter what why one tried to spin it!

"The Church has decided that it would be better if the Excalibur's are destroyed, rather remain in the grasp of the Fallen Angel's. Our base objective is to remove them from their hands by any means necessary. That does not require our survival. Besides, the best way to match an Excalibur is with another Excaliburm" Xeno continued, as I just wanted to groan. It's great to know the Church isn't completely insane, seeing as even I could tell the odds of returning alive might as well have been nonexistent. I doubted her claim. Yes, Holy Sword's were indeed powerful, but power in the hands of an idiot wouldn't exactly do much unless it was overwhelmingly so. The full Excalibur might be, but these seven fragments weren't.

I would have zero problems snipping them from outside the limited melee range of each blade, for example. Avoid their strength, close quarters, while fighting with my advantage, magic.

"To be so confident. You would have to have a secret weapon," Rias wasn't asking a question, she was making a statement. A likely true one. Which made me question this all the more. Unless that secret weapon was meant to go boom, I couldn't see anything still not being a waste.

"Perhaps. That is something I leave I'll leave to your imagination," Xenovia's voice sounded almost smug, and conversation seemed to flicker out. I mentally counted as the awkward silence dragged on for nearly half a minute before the two rose.

"If that is all, then we will take our leave," Xenovia spoke, preparing to leave. Rias looked like she was about to say something, but didn't, seemingly lost in thought. Well, it did seem like they were about to leave. Right up until they both turned to Asia. My eyes narrowed, as I can already tell where this would go.

My problem with the Church, beyond them, just being human and a result, being more than capable of doing terrible things for all the wrong reasons, was that they failed to fully understand the basics about Sacred Gears. That fundamental was that God made them. More than a fair share of Sacred Gears were defined as Heretical, typically those who held entities that had one point or another clashed with God. Twilight Healing was likely to be added to the list now after what happened with Asia. Despite Twilight Healing working literally as God himself intended. The ability to heal everything. Devil's and even Fallen Angel's included.

Divine Dividing, Boosted Gear, and several other Sacred Gears, all made by God, but his human followers wouldn't allow into the Church. It was a mental gymnastics so advanced one's skeleton would leap clear out of their skin and muscle tissue. Made me wonder why he just hadn't marched down here and slapped the stupid out of his followers.

"When I saw you at Hyoudou's house, I suspected it might be you. The witch Asia Argento, correct? I'm surprised to see you in such a place," Xenovia spoke. Witch. At the mere mention of the word, Asia practically recoiled, as if someone had punched her. While I doubted they were trying to hurt her intentionally, that did not make what I saw before me in any manner okay.

I shifted slightly, positioning part of my body between Asia and the two form the Church, Issei mimicking the action. Which drew Xenovia's eye rather quickly, shifting her focus to myself.

"And one who remains human," Xenovia raised her eyebrow, intrigued by my existence. "Interesting. I would not believe there would be a normal human foolish enough to keep the company of Devil's, yet here one is."

My eyes narrowed to what had to be arrow slits, my finger's tapping against the flat of my hand, wanting to form a fist. I wasn't going to cause a fight over the snide comment, but I didn't have to like it.

"What is the phrase? Judge not, lest you shall be judged?" I let my face relax as I spoke, trying to give the impression I was calming down when I wasn't. Irina seemed a bit surprised at my remark, while Xenovia just remained passive, staring at me. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but I cut her off.

"So, until you've figured out what it's like to walk a mile in my shoes, you can take your opinion of me and put it out with the trash. Where it belongs," my face twisted into a grin. "Please and thank you."

Xenovia didn't seem impressed by what I had said, but finally, finally, the two seemed content to leave. Distracting them to focus on me certainly wasn't the plan, but it worked. Now, with that attention dispelled, and Asia mercifully forgotten, they could leave, I could collect the notes from Koneko, and today would just end.

Until a mass of demonic blades erupted in the doorway like a surprise water sprinkler popping out of the ground. My face met my palm with an aidable smack, and if it wasn't for Kiba having nothing but pure murder in his eye, I actually might have drawn someone's attention.

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"This is a very, very stupid idea," I said, having repeated myself for what felt like the tenth time. Koneko, ever silent, and, maybe, the only sane person left, nodded her head in agreement. The white-haired girl slipped a few paper's into my hand, seeming to understand what I was here for without even asking. I mouthed a swift thank you, before turning my gaze upward.

In the center of the baseball diamond stood Kiba and Irina. With no insult to Kiba's skill, I didn't think he was going to win this one. Normally, he would be able to run circles around her, to the point I wouldn't call it a fair fight. But Kiba was just too angry. His advantage was speed, not power, and with a sword that could control its shape, he would need his mobility.

Irina would exploit that, too. Like me, she was human. One of the ways we leveled the playing field when we decided to swing out of our weight class? We cheated. We fought dirty. Kiba was just too unstable, too focused on vengeance and rage to the point were Irina could easily use that to her advantage. The first one to tilt was the first to lose, as the gamer saying goes, and Kiba was already tilted before the match even started.

Even with the notes in hand, I was sticking around. Naturally, a Holy Sword messed with a Devil's body, acting as a poison, if one would. Was Twilight Healing capable of mending the damage on its own? If anything the Holy Swords power might attempt to negate Twilight Healing instead. Which is where I would come in with Divine Dividing to draw the Holy power out. While Kiba was being incredibly stupid, he was still my friend, and I'd rather him not cripple himself over this. Besides, I was going to have a word or two with him as soon as this was finished.

"I'm surprised you didn't take up my offer," Xenovia spoke, almost sounding disappointed in my choice. If my eyes rolled any harder, they'd pop straight out of their sockets.

"Firstly, I have better things to do with my magic than using it to rain lightning down on you from on high," I started, something that made the exorcist raised an eyebrow slightly, "secondly, if something like Kokabiel is in town, which you should pray that the Church is wrong, then I will for a fact have better things to be preparing for." There was a third reason. Even if this wasn't going to report this fight, as she claimed, I had doubts that she would keep her mouth shut if she knew Devil's in town had access to Divine Dividing, alongside Boosted Gear. That would give a few up at the Church a heart attack.

Xenovia shrugged, before returning her gaze to the pitch, as Rias reluctantly started the little sparring match. Kiba shot forward, holding twin blades in hand. Even with the passive effect of the Holy Sword slowing him down, his speed remained more than formidable. If he used it right. Seeing that he meet Irina head-on, rather than trying to attack from behind, the fight was likely going to end up as I feared.

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"Kiba, stop being stubborn!" I growled, trying to get close the two bleeding wounds on Kiba's chest. Mercifully, both were shallow cuts, but the Holy Energies were still more than enough to incapacitate Kiba. However, I was getting more than tired of this.

His only response was a glare, which only added fuel to my rising temper.

"Koneko, please, hold him still for me," I turned to the smallest out of the group to help. Rias was, sufficiently mad, at a combination of Kiba, for being irrational, the Exorcists, which had also mercifully, left, and herself for letting everything escalate to that point. Kiba turned, preparing to fend off the first-year, not that he probably would succeed.

Only to be met by mightiest weapon conceived by mortal minds. The one that spoke to that feral pit in our brains to protect and shelter. Bambi Eyes.

Sure, it wasn't what I was going for, but I was certainly going to take it. I placed my hands against the open wound, ignoring the yelp of pain from Kiba as snapped back to reality, making a vain attempt at batting away my touch.

"Divide," with a simple word, I drew the holy magic from the wound, pulling it out with precision and focus. It was akin to pulling on a loose thread, slowly unwinding it until nothing remained. Kiba's hiss of pain told me what I was doing wasn't exactly comfortable, but I continued regardless. He would thank me later when he stopped being stubborn about this.

"I didn't need that," Kiba huffed, as I scowled, letting the energy dispersed into the air.

"Kiba, I'm going to be blunt," I crossed my arms, continuing to glower down at him. "I get that you want revenge for your friends, but it's time you ask yourself, is this what they would want?" Kiba opened his mouth, but I didn't let him speak.

"Because, no, I don't think you to get yourself killed. I'd think they'd want you to live," my expression softened. "Kiba, you have friends who love and care about you, myself included. Get help, if not for your sake, then for us."

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Originally, James wasn't going to be present for the meeting with Irina and Xenovia, but I decided to change it, and things got a bit out of hand. I do hope you guys enjoyed, though. As for next time? Things will begin to get interesting.


	12. Chapter 12

"So that's why you were late coming home?" I nodded my head, confirming my mother's question. My sister was still on the couch, thoroughly out of it, trying to work on her homework already.

"Let me get this straight. There are exorcists in town, that are here to track down several holy swords, stolen by fallen angels. That was, for some reason, brought to Kouh," my dad summarized what I had been saying.

"And Kokobial is in town," I said, filling in the key missing point that my father had left out. My father just rubbed his head, trying to fight off a headache, which I didn't blame him.

"So on a scale of one to ten, how bad do you think this is going to get?" my sister tried to shout from her position on the couch. Her coughing was a sign that she didn't succeed in that.

"Eight to nine, easily," I nodded. Lily tried to let out a whistle of impression, but came up short on that front, sputtering. Even my parents seemed concerned, knowing our little devastation scale.

"Really? I mean, surely he would try to nearly wipe out all life on earth?" my dad responded, and I had to shake my head.

"How many people would die if the three faction war started up again?" I countered, both my parents wearing a shocked expression on their faces.

"James, that isn't a funny joke," my mom chided, before taking another look at my face. "Oh." Look, I couldn't think of any other reason. Kokobial could hide a dozen other places in the world than this town. Hell, he could hide in his territory. Why bring those holy swords into Devil territory? Why into this specific one, one with two members of Devil royalty?

Sure, it could be a coincidence, but I doubted it. This town was picked for a reason, and I was sure that Sona and Rias were that reason. If they ended up dead from any of the Holy Swords, then their family and siblings would respond against the Church. And it would only escalate from there.

Why did Kokobial want this? I didn't know, and it honestly didn't matter. He was going to have to be stopped, one way or another.

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I was in charge of cleaning up after dinner, getting dishes and utensils into the dishwasher, all that stuff. I made a slight frown, looking down at one of the forks. Yeah, a fork wasn't meant to bend like that. It looked close to like it had been snapped in half.

Was it me? No, surely not. I was eating with my fork for most of the meal. I would have noticed if I made both ends kiss. Did something happen during dinner that I missed? It wasn't sitting out with the rest of the utensils, either. Maybe someone dropped something thin and heavy on one, and I just hadn't noticed till now. Well, into the trash that goes. That fork is beyond unfit to eat with.

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"So what exactly are you doing?" Lily looked up at me from her position on the couch. I was making use of the small mirror we kept in the hall as my scrying surface. I didn't have a crystal ball, so I had to improvise. I flipped through the small book I brought up with me, searching for what I needed.

I hadn't done anything like this before. Scrying was always something I overlooked as unneeded, completely unnecessary. And it wasn't like I was entirely wrong. Most magical beings could easily cast wards that would prevent any attempt at using magic to discern their location. Even magicians could easily accomplish such a task, and as such, the field was what one would call, undeveloped.

Rarely worth the hassle to learn. The only way it could potentially be useful was in cases that a being was so overconfident that it didn't think it needed it. Was Kokobial one of those beings? Maybe.

"Calming my nerves," I finally answered, reaching out with the spell, the mirror turning mirky and milky. Good. It was working. "Kokobial."

The magical mist within the mirror continued to swirl around, giving no response to my prying. Yeah, I should have figured. I let out a sigh but didn't let go of the spell just yet.

"Holy swords," I stated, with the mirror's state remaining unchanged. Was I being too brought in scope on that one? Ok, then third times the charm. "Excaliburs."

That elicited a reaction, fog shifting into something. I frowned, as it arranged itself into something that looked like a map of Kouh. Damn, was I even using this right? I mean, I guessed this worked, even if I had no idea what was going on.

First, two bright white dots appeared. They were nearly on the other side of town, moving in the same direction. Irina and Xevonia were the most likely individuals, but I watched the dots for a bit before I looked at the rest of the map.

Damn, I figured Kokobial would keep his stolen Excalibur's under lock and eye, even from Scrying. Just as I was about to let the spell go, I saw an extremely bright dot pop into existence. I made a note of its location. One person had to be carrying all of the blades, it would be the only reason why the dot looked so damn bright. Easily thrice that of Irina or Xevonia's own.

But who? The spell shifted, responding to my question, zooming in on the person of interest.

I scowled, fingernail's digging into my skin as I clenched my fist.

Freed.

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Rias looked at her phone. It wasn't quite time to join her beloved Issei, but she was preparing for bed, so to receive a call at this time was strange. She frowned as she saw the caller ID. James? He would not be calling this time of night without cause. He generally never called in the first place, unless he viewed it as important.

So she picked up her phone and accepted the call.

"Hello, this is Rias," she said, waiting for James to respond.

"I'll cut straight to the chase, Rias. Did you know that Freed has escaped?" if it wasn't for the fact that her phone was magically reinforced, it would have shattered under her grip. Freed was free? That was news to her. A deep breath was what it took to calm her nerves. Issei and Asia were with her, and everyone else could handle themselves when it came to Freed.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. May I ask how you learned this information?" yes, she would most certainly act on this. Freed was a danger to everyone in her territory, and killing him would be for the best. But she doubted James intentionally searched out such information.

"I was doing some scrying on the Excalibur's in town," James sighed, "nothing serious, just something to calm my nerves. I managed to get a bead Freed exiting a building. He has one Excalibur at a minimum. And honestly, he likely has more."

Rias chewed on her tongue. Freed was a sociopathic monster, but him having access to any of the Holy Swords? James was right to contact her. Normally, she would keep her word and let the Church and Fallen fight it out, but Freed was simply too dangerous to everyone in town, magical or otherwise, to ignore.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, James," she said. "I will inform Sona of the situation as quickly as possible." Thankfully, she was sure everyone in her peerage was currently hunkered down for the night, which would keep them safe. Tomorrow, she would be making sure they stayed close at hand. All of them.

But for tonight, she made sure to hold Issei and Asia extremely close.

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"This is quite the problem," Sona sighed. Classes had ended, and I was pulled aside by both Kings in short order. I simply nodded. An understatement, sure, but Sona wasn't wrong. Even with my miraculous night's sleep, I was still on edge.

"If I had known that Freed had escaped, I wouldn't have made the promise that I did," Rias said, nodding. "But given the circumstances, I'm more than willing to take a hit to my reputation if it means keeping my peerage safe."

"I'm not exactly sure how Freed can use a Holy Sword in the first place, let alone multiple," Sona frowned. "Do you think it has something to do with Holy Sword Experiment that Kiba was killed in?" I shuddered at the thought, but that did make sense. Freed was not a moral or even decent person. If the goal was to create an artificial Holy Sword user, then it was a success.

"I do have two hypotheses on the matter, but I don't think you'll like either of them," I spoke up. Sona simply nodded, which I took as a sign to continue. "I think he's trying to combine the Excalibur's."

"What makes you think that?" Sona asks, crossing her fingers under her chin.

"Well, when I managed to detect Freed, I was looking for the Excalibur's. He was lit up considerably more than the two dots I think we're Irina and Xevonia were. So unless Freed developed a third arm, I wouldn't see any reason to give him more than one," I explained, as Sona nodded, mouth still covered by her interlocking fingers.

"And the second would be?" Rias asked, and I hid a wince. They weren't exactly going to like this one.

"Well, that's more about why Kokobial stole the Excalibur's, and why he brought them to Kouh, specifically," that got a Sona's eyebrow to raise, while Rias merely frowned. Both expressions prompted me to go on.

"You're both Devil royalty, right?" I opened with, not missing the glare Sona sent Rias as the taller Devil looked a bit sheepish.

"That is a gross oversimplification of matters, but yes, we are related to the two of the ruler's of devil society," Sona stated, "but please, continue."

"What do you think would happen if you two were found dead with the Holy Swords used as the murder weapon?" the stillness in the air after my statement hung thick. One could easily have heard a pin drop.

"Are you suggesting that Kokabiel intends to kill us to restart the war?" Sona seemed surprised, face making something that resembled a scowl.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. Kokabiel could probably hide the Excalibur's anywhere on the planet without detection, likely in other Devil territories too if that is necessary. There are probably closer territories were he could hide, so why this one?" Sona and Rias both frowned at my rhetorical question.

"Create a diplomatic incident, while pinning the blame on the Church," Sona muttered, mulling over what I said. "It certainly seems possible, if insane. But what reason would Kokobeil have to restart the war? The ceasefire has been active for centuries, and good reason. If we started fighting now, all three sides would likely end up extinct, and humanity sent back to the stone age, if not driven to extinction with us."

I had to shrug at that. I just honestly didn't know. Sometimes people just wanted to watch the world burn.

"I hate to ask you to do this, James, but the situation might be more out of hand than originally anticipated. I expected the exorcists from the Church to be outmatched, but this is a cause for extreme concern, even if it's a hypothetical worst-case scenario. Do you remember the location where your spell first picked up Freed?" Rias asked. I nodded. I had plugged the location into my phone in short order.

"Avoid combat if you can, but try and keep an eye out on Freed and his movements. If you can find out what Kokobial is planning, even better. But be safe, and don't get reckless, James," I understood what she was saying. Intel, recon, and get the hell out of Dodge if things went south.

"I'll do everything in my power to do so," I nodded in agreement. Stealth wasn't my thing, nor was an investigation, but who was she going to send? Everyone was vulnerable to Holy Swords beside me. I had no idea of the combat capacities of Sona's Peerage, but in Rias's? Issei had a long way to go, Asia was practically defenseless, and Kiba was completely emotionally compromised. That left Akeno, who would likely be kept close, and Koneko, the only currently sane one who kind of stuck out because of the small size.

"However, given there are extraneous circumstances at my house, so I'm going to have to ask for a favor," I said, crossing my arms. Rias and Sona shared a look.

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"I can't thank you enough for this Asia," I said, walking beside the small girl. Lily was unsurprisingly still sick and was getting worse. Not only that, mom had to work tonight, and dad had to work late. Which meant, under normal circumstances, I would be watching over her. But normal circumstances these weren't.

"It's no problem. Though I don't know how much I can do for her," Asia smiled at me, nearly a beam of light. There was a reason I chose her, and it wasn't just because of her Scared Gear. Out of the Peerage, she was probably the only one my parents wouldn't argue against keeping an eye on Lily.

Kiba was simply too mentally unstable to be trusted at the moment. Akeno, while likely capable, still often left me too ill at ease to trust her with taking care of Lily. Rias would likely be too busy for something like this, and while I knew I could trust Koneko for general observation, I had no idea how she'd act around someone sick. And while I did trust Issei not to try anything at this point, if only because he knew what the result would be, he had a reputation and there was no way I could get my parents to agree.

I opened the door for Asia, allowing her to slip inside as followed shortly after. Mom had gone to bed already, leaving my sister by herself, but only for an hour.

"You haven't been drinking," I commented, shaking the bottle of water lying next to the couch. All I got was a slight groan out of her, which wasn't a good sign.

"I'll make sure she gets some water," Asia bowed, a serious look on her face that I rarely got to see. "Do you know where the medicine and the towels are?"

"The medicine cabinet is here," I pointed out the cabinet, pulling out a stepping stool that would allow Asia to reach it more easily. "More water can be found in the fridge, and the towels can be found in a closet at the end of that hall."

Asia wasted no time springing into action, grabbing one of the smaller towels from the closet before dousing it in cold water, which was properly folded up and placed on Lily's forehead.

"Thermometer," she ordered, with me quickly handing her the device. My sister opened her mouth, allowing Asia to place it under her tongue.

"My phone number is on the table if you need it," I said, beginning to make my way towards the door, Asia nodding as I felt. Well, it looked like Lily was in good hands.

Now it was time to track down Freed and find a way to put him back where he belonged.

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I glared at the building before me. A new hotel, just finishing construction by the time my family arrived in Kouh and it was swarming with people. State of the art, it was impressive that what I considered a medium-sized town would have a hotel this nice.

But I wasn't here to admire the architecture, or marvel at the expense of it all. Freed's signature had originally come from this direction, and as such, this would prove to be a good first place to look. I could see why he would choose such a place.

The hotel was simply bustling with people, which meant only an idiot would engage there, both because of collateral damage and lives lost. Even without accounting for the risks of combat, the number of humans would make finding anyone extremely difficult, let alone tailing them.

So, I was relegated to observation from afar. I had a major advantage right now. I was, to my knowledge, undetected. Freed didn't know I was on his tail, and as a result, trying to flush him out was a bad idea. As such, I needed for Freed to make the first move, too abandon his cover and wait until nightfall.

I spared a glance at my clock. Oh boy, this was going to be a wait.

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"Well, now that we agree, I must ask, where is the magician? I'm surprised you didn't bring him along," Xenovia asked, looking across the table to the group of four Devil's. She didn't like this arrangement, however, it increased their odds of success. Irina was right about that much.

"James? I think he's busy with family related business," Issei nodded. He had noticed James acting somewhat agitated all day. His sister was ill, after all, and strangely so at that. Despite James appearing emotionally stable and in control most of the time, he was also quick to become unnerved when it came to something going wrong with friends or family.

"Sister's sick," Xevonia watched as the shortest of the Devil's elaborated. Xevonia had to frown. It was hazardous for a human to remain in such close contact with a group of Devil's. With each passing day, the odds of him becoming a Devil would increase, seduced by lies and falsehoods, or empty promises of power.

Still, it was for the best. This was beyond a normal human magician anyway. He may be confident in his abilities, but if the only trick he had was magic, he wouldn't be of much use.

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There. Freed blipped into the spell's detection at seven. I looked up, quickly scanning the crowd. The hotel was still bustling, but the flow of people had begun to slow, allowing me to pick up the silver-haired priest. Once I saw him, I ducked my head back down, trying to act like a teenager more focused on their phone than the world around them. Once Freed rounded the corner, I enlarged the spell, allowing me to see more of the city.

The dot representing Freed was heading due south. I was about to inform Rias as something else came into range. Two more dots, ones I suspected were Irina and Xevonia. heading northward. On the same street.

'Have Freed's location. If he continues on his current path, he will come into direct contact with Irina and Xevonia. Should I intercept now or wait?' I texted as I started to move. Freed had already shown to have no care for civilian casualties, and I wasn't entirely sure about the other two.

'Wait. Track Freed, but keep out of his line of sight. If he and the Exorcists fight, only step in if it looks like they are losing.' I read the text, nodding. Yeah, that was honestly the best idea. Only intrude on that dance if it looked like they were going to lose.

I figured Freed was far enough ahead by this point, so I rounded the corner, keeping a leisurely pace. After all, this wasn't a chase. Freed would eventually have to stop, and I would know exactly when he did. From there, it was just a matter of observation. Piece of cake, a walk in the park.

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I ducked behind a corner, hoping I wasn't noticed. Freed had continued along his path, directly towards the two Holy Sword users, letting them fight was honestly alright by me. However, no plan ever survives contact with an enemy. Or, more accurately, in this case, didn't survive contact with your friends.

Kiba, Issei, Koneko, and Saji? What were they doing out here? What were they doing wearing exorcist clothing? The Holy Sword users weren't in sight yet, but I couldn't think of a reason why they would be out here in the first place? Are they using themselves as bait for Freed?

The first thing I'd have to do is inform Rias. If they were supposed to be out and about, she would have told me, meaning this was something they were doing against order's or at the very least without permission. Sure, ratting them out would be kind of scummy, but this was an incredibly dangerous situation for them.

'Complication. Kiba, Koneko, and Issei are present. Saji too. Permission to step in?' I texted, tapping send. A few seconds later, my phone buzzed.

'Yes. I will arrive with Sona as soon as I can. Keep them safe until we arrive.'

That sounded doable. Now, just to intercept Freed before he kills someone.

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I was impressed. Despite the massive disadvantage of going against a Holy Sword, the four of them were doing quite well. Even with Kiba's recklessness, I was impressed. I didn't know Kiba was able to fill an entire area with demonic blades when powered up by Issei.

Honestly, it didn't look like my aid would be needed for this. Saji's Sacred Gear had locked Freed in place, slowly weakening him. So, it was somewhat like Divine Dividing then.

Then Freed managed to cut through it, with Saji letting out a hiss of pain. Freed leaped up, likely to escape through a hole in the roof. Unfortunately, that gave me a direct shot.

A lightning bolt arced forth from my hand, slamming into Freed, breaking through the trinket he used to protect himself from the last encounter. He slumped in pain as I entered through his normal escape route, knocking him off his ledge and into the dirt.

"Sorry Freed, but you aren't escaping this time," I shouted as I hover just out of his attack range.

"You coward!" Freed snarled, holding the twisted blade in his hand. "What happened to you fighting head-on?"

"What happened to you being able to resist my magic?" I quipped back. "I have to thank you though. This time, I don't have to worry about holding myself back."

Freed growled, leaping towards me as I smirked, preparing another spell. Before I could release it, a figure leaped between the two of us, parrying Freed's holy sword in a clang of metal.

"I had everything under control," I growled, even as Freed slammed back into the dirt. Xevonia sent me a glare in return but ultimately ignored me, landing on her feet.

"Freed Zelzen. Valper Galilei. Traitors. I will cut the both of you down in the name of God," she said, voice even as she advanced with her blade.

"Or you could just drop your weapons and surrender," I began to cast two spells, one aimed toward Freed, the other at the man that Kiba was eyeing with a glare of intense hatred.

Freed let out an animalistic snarl in response but didn't say a word, instead of reaching into his pocket.

"As much as I would enjoy killing all of you, it's time to retreat Old-Man! We need to report this alliance to the boss!" Freed shouted, raising the small orb in his hand high. Whatever it was, whatever it was capable of, I couldn't let him use it! I released both spells, one aimed toward Freed, the other the priest, just as Freed threw the sphere towards the ground.

Everything went white as the sphere hit the ground, emitting a bright flash of light. I couldn't see! It only could have taken a minute or two for my vision to return to me, but by that point, both Freed and his companion had fled. Had I missed? Even if I had, surely they hadn't have gotten far.

"Irina, we will continue our pursuit," Xevonia spoke, already on the move, as Irina quickly followed suit. I wanted to stop them. Sure, the two couldn't have gotten far without additional magic, which wouldn't be off the table at this point, but going after them brought its risks. But it wasn't like I had any control over them.

"I'm going after them too. I can't let Galilei escape!" Kiba was also heading towards the door, moving faster than I could react.

I didn't even get to say anything before he was out the door, but by the time I went out into the street, he was already out of sight.

"Shit!" I ground out, looking around madly for the knight, but not finding him anywhere. Issei also looked displeased before looking my way.

"What are you doing here, James?" he asked.

"I was just going to ask you the same thing Issei," I frowned, looking toward the three Devil's that remained. It was at that moment Issei began to sweat, as did Saji. I crossed my arms, raising my eyebrow at the two of them as they looked guilty. However, it was Koneko's body posture that told me something was up. She began to tense up into a fighting stance. Nothing obvious, but her fists tightening was a bad sign.

So I looked up, noticing the half dozen individuals standing in robes. Each had a hood, which hides their facial features. However, what wasn't covered looked akin to Freed's uniform.

"May I help you?" I asked, beginning to prepare spells, just in the likely event that these people were in fact, hostile. How exactly had they gotten here? Had I been followed without noticing?

"Yes, you can. With your death, your observation will end, and your interference with it," the one in front spoke, activating the exorcist blade in their hand. That was dumb of me. Of course, my scrying wouldn't go unnoticed. I hardly knew what I was doing in that sphere in the first place. Kokebial had likely been aware of it this whole time!

"Not going to happen," Issei stepped forward alongside Koneko.

"The lives of Devil's have even lesser worth. You shall all die this day as a warning to those who cross Kokabiel!" another spoke in nearly the same voice.

"Chain Lightning," I declared simply, releasing the spell. A single bolt of lightning arced from my hand, slamming into the rogue exorcist in the lead. They let out a scream of pain as the spell bifurcated, arcing between them before each fell to the ground.

"Well, that was fast," Saji whistled, seemingly impressed by the display, looking down at the five groaning exorcists. They were down, but not exactly out. At least, not yet. I approached the one who I assumed was the leader, before casting another spell. I held it over their chest for a second, before bands of lightning came down around their hands and feet, effectively pinning them in place.

"Interesting," Koneko commented as I repeated the cycle for each individual, leaving them pinned to the street.

"Akeno was the one who had me cook this spell up in the first place. I'm just thankful I've found a use for it outside of whatever she wants it for," I shuttered. I had no idea what she wanted it for, nor did I want to know. Still, there was the task at hand. Each one of them had a similar voice, and I was curious as to why.

With them being pinned without any chance of escape or resistance, I began to remove their hoods. I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't what I saw.

"Are they all Freed?" Issei's question summarized my thoughts perfectly. Freed's face was sadly one I wouldn't soon forget, but for five people to have his face as well, strange.

"Well that's just creepy," Saji commented, and I nodded in agreement. One Freed was bad enough. The fact he had what looked like male and female clones of himself was horrifying.

"Creepy, disturbing, unsettling. Take your pick of words to describe what this is, because we've got options," I muttered. "Does the Vatican have like, cloning technology or something? If they do, why exactly are they cloning their most insane agent?"

"That is a good question, James," a familiar voice said from behind me. Issei and Saji both paled immediately. Well, it looks like I'll be getting the answer to what they were doing here after all.

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Destroy Excalibur. Allow Kiba to vent out his anger by destroying one of those Holy Swords. I mean, on paper, that actually could prove to be a decent plan. After all, the Church would rather have an Excalibur destroyed then remain in Kokabiel's hands. But did they have the power to do so?

'The Excalibur's aren't exactly stable if my memory serves me correctly. Issei, with enough boosts, could provide even Kiba with enough power to destroy one. You could accomplish the same if you desire,' Albion spoke as I nodded. 'Though I can tell you have reservations attempting such.'

'If there is a risk the Holy Swords are volatile, then yes, destroying one without proper protective measures would prove unwise,' I returned.

"I mean, that seems interesting, but did you have anything prepared encase the sword went off like a bomb or something?" I asked carefully. I could tell by Issei's wince that they hadn't thought of that.

"Not to mention political ramifications of one the Excalibur's being destroyed by a Devil," Rias sighed. "I understand that you both want to help Kiba, but this is a very dangerous situation, and I don't want to see any of you hurt."

That I had to agree with. Kiba needed help, and I don't think the way they were going about it would have truly been helpful in the long run. We'd be hunting for him all night at this rate, and I don't think any of us could truly keep up with the Knight. The only real plus of tonight was that some of those creepy Freed look-alikes had been dealt with.

"I'm sorry, Buchou," the two apologized, as I avoided making eye contact with Saji. I knew Sona likely wasn't as lenient as Rias was when it came to her Peerage's antics, but the poor boy was being spanked. Almost like a mother disciplining their child.

The mental image nearly made me snort. Sona did strike me as the type of be a disciplining mother when they got older. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, distracting me for a moment. Asia? Why was she contacting me?

"Hello?" I answered, before hearing Asia's panicked voice. Had something gone wrong? Was there an attack on the house while I wasn't there?

"James! It's your sister! I think she's having a seizure!"

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Sorry about the long wait. I took a break to help prepare for the GRE, so I should be returning to a "regular" update schedule.

As for this chapter, while I don't feel it's my best work, it sets up a few long term plot points down the road where things will begin to diverge from canon. I do hope those of you who read this chapter enjoy it, and once again, sorry for the late update.


	13. Chapter 13

The door was something I could fix later. There was one thing on my mind and one thing alone. I needed to get back to my sister. Lily was exactly where I had left her, laying on the couch. Her face twitched as if in pain, muscles in her arm clenching and unclenching faster than I could keep pace with.

Asia had put a towel between Lily's teeth, preventing her from biting down on her tongue. Light from her Sacred Gear, Twilight Healing, flooded the room, bathing it in a pale green glow. Whatever it was Asia was trying to accomplish, it appeared to be a fruitless endeavor.

I knew my sister's Sacred Gear well enough. I'd grown up with it, slowly becoming inured to all the trouble it could cause. Sometimes if a natural disaster was going to happen, she would get sick, but I had never seen a reaction this volatile before.

I tried to position myself as close as I could to my sister's trembling body, backing up to a safe distance when Asia shot an intense glare in my direction. She was the professional, not me, and if I wanted my sister better, I should probably listen to her. As much as I wanted to hug Lily until what was harming her went away, I knew such wouldn't be enough to solve the problem.

By that point, I was far too wrapped up in my concern to notice the devil's that had piled into the house right on my heels. Second, by agonizing second, time ticked by, I watched as Asia did her work. The twitch in Lily's arms slowly became less intense, her body less rigid. Her face, which had been pulled tight with pain, relaxed, as tension fled her expression. Twilight Healing's light dissipated, as Asia wiped the sweat off her brow. Lily let out a soft sigh, her body finally relaxing completely.

"I think we are out of the woods now," Asia said, pulling herself to her feet. Issei was there to offer her a hand up, which she took. I didn't fail to notice the blush that engulfed her face, or how surprised she was by the sudden number of guests.

"What happened?" I asked. Sure, I was revealed by the fact that Lily was ok, but why did she suddenly have a seizure?

"I don't know," Asia admitted, putting on her serious face. "One minute, she was working on her homework, the next, her eyes went all weird, then she passed out and started spasming. I've never seen anything quite like it."

"Her eyes went weird?" Rias and Sona both asked at the same time, out passing me by a few seconds.

"They were like," Asia didn't get a chance to finish, as the couch let out a creak, each of us turning to face Lily, who was now sitting upright, ramrod straight. "Like that."

I looked, my own eyes widening in shock. Lily's eyes had changed from a normal pair to that of twin slits that wouldn't be out of place on a snake. Had her Sacred Gear just activated all on its own?

"The fallen star with wings covered in the blood of the father seeks blood and destruction eternal. With the blood of the sibling and the mortal, the hydra's heads will turn against another. Their hate and rage will serve as the altar to which man is sacrificed, and with man's death, will herald their end," my sister's voice rasped, almost like a desiccated corpse. For a moment, her eyes returned to normal, before they rolled up and she passed out again.

I felt everyone's eyes turn to me, with the strongest glare being Rias herself. I was going to be in so much trouble for this, wasn't I?

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Rias would gladly admit she'd had better days. Having nearly half her peerage go behind her back trying to help Kiba was bad enough, but to find out James was keeping a secret of this magnitude was merely salt on the wound. She had suspected that James was hiding something about his family, but she hadn't expected this.

She didn't exactly blame James. His thought process was honestly, completely logical. If Rias had known about the Sacred Gear Lily possessed, she would certainly put forth the effort to recruit James' younger sister. As would Sona. While it hurt James didn't trust them, his choice was honestly the correct one.

Even if she didn't want to be turned, something Rias and Sona would respect, if it got out that Lily had future sight, in any capacity, she would be in danger. Rias was under no illusion that there were less ethical Devil's out there. One's that would have no problem forcing her into service, even with her brother possessing Divine Dividing.

In hindsight, James' protective streak made much more sense, as did the one-sided nature of his deal. Not that she entirely liked it, but James was trying to keep his sister sheltered and safe. Rias felt like she was looking in a mirror, seeing her relationship with her brother. Did Lily wish to prove herself capable of more than just being in her brother's shadow, like she did?

Rias let out a sigh. That line of questioning would have to wait. Rias didn't exactly have the best grasp of what Lily's personality was, beyond her cheerfulness and her being one of the best students of her class.

Well, she supposed it was time to rescue James from Sona and begin to focus on the actual problem. Though Rias had to wonder, Sona appeared as if she was acting. Did she know about this as well? If so, then why hide that knowledge from James. Well, those were questions for another time.

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"I don't like that you lied to us, James. I understand why you did it, but that doesn't change that you lied. You wanted us to protect your family, but you omitted an extremely important piece of information," Sona scowled at me, as I met her gaze. "An important piece of information that could have gotten someone from my Peerage or Rias's hurt, if not killed." That I winced at. Someone I knew dying wasn't something I wanted, period. Ideally, nobody would know about it in the first place.

"Look, I get it. But what exactly would you do if you had known?" I crossed my arms.

"I would have made a request, but accepted her answer, whatever that maybe," Sona matched my pose, not backing down either.

"And would others?" I questioned. "Would heaven be so courteous as to give her a choice? Would the Fallen Angels let her have a choice? Would other Devil's give her a choice?" Sona visibly winced at the last one, breaking my gaze for a split second.

"Just like with human society, I have no doubts that less than principled Devil's would try to force such power into their service," Sona spoke. "However, if such an event occurred we would be able to deal with it."

A light coughing sound drew both of our attention towards the entrance to the kitchen, with Rias standing in the doorway.

"As much as this conversation needs to be had, there are larger problems that we need to solve," Rias said, looking over the two of us. "I'm calling the rest of my peerage here for the moment, and I'll be contacting my brother once we know more about what Kokabiel's scheme is."

Sona looked at Rias for a moment, before letting out a sigh.

"You're right, Rias. Whatever Kokabiel is planning takes precedence. Especially with the results being so potentially disastrous," Sona unwound her arms, though still sending me an annoyed look. "I'll contact my peerage as well. I don't think your house is big enough for all of us."

I shrugged. Sona was correct in that regard. Please, Lily probably needed her rest.

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"Well, Lily's prophecy doesn't reveal anything about how Kokabiel intends to enact his plan, but it paints his end goal. Kokabiel wants to restart the Three Faction War, to predicted catastrophic results," Rias had us all sitting down at the kitchen table, effectively a little war council. "However, given that James has already informed us of a possible theory of how Kokabiel intends to accomplish this."

I send Rias a look as I felt all eyes turn to me for the second time tonight, before groaning and standing up.

"Given that all I did was spitball the absolute worst-case scenario, and now how likely that appears to be. This hypothesis was that Kokabiel would use the shattered fragments of Excalibur to kill Rias and Sona, whose deaths would send shockwaves through Devil Society. Immediate suspicion would be thrown onto the Church and by extension Heaven. Anger from the assassination would bleed over into outright conflict between two of the three powers, and from there, the Fallen would likely try and take advantage of both sides becoming weakened. And from there, we all know where that leads," I explained to faces now looking at me in horror.

"That isn't a funny joke, James!" Saji looked like he was about to punch me, but a simple glare from Sona made him stand down.

"Given what we presently know about Kokabiel's plan, what James is saying is more than likely correct," Sona spoke, as Saji slumped into his chair, a defeated look on his face. "And before you suggest it, James, we aren't simply going to leave, either."

I blinked, not expecting her to cut me off so quickly. Logically speaking, a retreat was the most intelligent play to make. Kokabiel couldn't get to them in the Underworld. Crisis averted, humanity doesn't go extinct.

"I was thinking the same, Sona," Rias spoke up. "Lily's prophecy mentioned human blood. Which cold range to the death of a single person, up to the destruction of this town and all its occupants."

Issei, Saji, Asia and I all shared a look. I never considered that possibility. And neither did any of the others. My fist's clinched in anger, temper briefly flaring before I smothered it back down.

"An entire town being destroyed, especially one that's Devil Territory, would be more than enough to potentially provoke a war on its own. And what exactly of the human response? An entire town being raised like that would stir up fear and panic on a national scale. Combine with our reputations, retreat as an option ceases to exist," Sona shook her head.

I sighed in frustration. Sona was right. I wouldn't be strong enough to take Kokabiel down myself with Judgement Drive, which would annihilate the town and everyone in it. I'd never attempted to touch the bright red button before, and I'd rather leave it that way. I'd likely end up murdering those I was attempting to protect anyway.

"I could contact my brother about reinforcements, but unless Kokabiel directly makes a move against us, I doubt he'll be able to do much. As much as he would take this with the utmost seriousness, it doesn't change that in the eyes of the public, we are children operating under a prophecy given out by an unknown Sacred Gear," Rias also seemed frustrated, as I bit back a swear. Damn politics. Always getting in the way.

"Wait, you don't know?" Issei questioned. "You knew what my Sacred Gear was before I knew I had it."

"Well, Sacred Gears that can see the future are quite rare, with one appearing every few centuries at best," Rias explained. "Given the scarcity of cases throughout the ages, exactly what each is capable of and to what clarity they can see the future can be tricky to pin down."

"Plus, the future is fluid. It's less knowledge of what will happen, but rather what is likely to happen. Knowledge of the future can also change one's behavior, resulting in a different outcome altogether," I elaborated. Issei nodded at our joint explanation.

"So, how can we figure out which it is?" Saji asked, who seemed curious about proceeding events.

"Each Sacred Gear as properties unique to itself, let it be placed on a person, to its effects and abilities. Based on what I witnessed tonight, I believe I can make a reasonable guess to the identity of Lily's Sacred Gear. However, I'll need to review some reports, to be certain I'm not miss-remembering information," Sona looked as if she were scratching an invisible beard.

That was, strangle covenant. Lily had always wanted to know the identity of her Sacred Gear. Understanding its origins would be a great boon in that regard. But it all just felt way too convenient. Too, easy. Though denying my curiosity was a fruitless endeavor.

"An incorrect guess could prove disastrous at this stage," Sona continued, seemingly without noticing my on look of contemplation. The sudden creak of the door drew our attention. I had honestly expected Dad to be home. After all, it was about time for him to be getting here. Bet he'd love my explanation of why our kitchen was a glorified war room.

But to my surprise, and presumably, everyone else's, Lily walked into the room, appearing happy and chipper as ever.

"I don't know what you did Asia, but I feel great!" she stretched, before noticing that everyone in the room was staring at her. "What did I say?"

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The school day might have well have been over in the blink of an eye. Kiba being missing, combined with his mood the last few days caused the rumor mill to nearly start flying off, even with the official story being that he was sick.

Lily's classmates were excited to have her back and healthy, though she was a bit tired after we filled her in on exactly what was occurring. I was, well, strongly opposed to having Lily getting involved in this at all. However, given the circumstances, my hands were tied. Realistically, there was only so much protest I could make. Keeping her close, where I could keep a close watch, might just be the safest place for her to be right now.

"Wow, this place looks so cool!" Lily looked around at the large clubhouse with childish glee. Normally, I would be doing anything in my power to keep her isolated from this place, so Lily being present made me feel off.

Rias just smiled and chuckled, seemingly amused by Lily's antics. We were just waiting for Sona's peerage at this point.

"So, what exactly do you guys do here?" she asked, seeming a bit more excited about this whole thing than I anticipated.

"Normally, we wait here until it is time to complete our contracts," Rias smiled, though it was a bitter one. "Today though is much different. I do expect Sona to arrive soon. I wonder what's keeping her?"

Lily was about to ask something as the teleportation circle in the room began to glow a light blue, shining brightly before finally finishing, revealing the student council. Each one carrying what could only be qualified as a mammoth stack of papers. I raised an eyebrow at Rias, as she shot me back a puzzled look in return.

"Sorry, but I decided to bring everything, just in case," Sona's muffled voice came from the wriggling mass of tomes, reports, and was that a piece of parchment? I knew Devil's were immortal, but that's stretching things.

"Did you find it? Did you find it?" Lily was practically vibrating with barely contained excitement.

"Yes, I have," the shuffling of paper nearly masked her voice entirely. "Rias, do you have a place where we can put these down so we can begin."

"Ah, right over here works," Rias stepped aside, recovering from the attack of the living bookshelves as Lily practically nipped at their heels the entire way.

"Is she usually this excited?" Issei whispered into my ear as I shook my head in embarrassment.

"No, no she is not," I muttered back. Her state of anticipation was one I could understand, but at the same time, she needed to calm herself.

But in the meantime, might as well lend some aid to the beleaguered Devil's that Sona roped into this. Was the mountainous stack of literature even necessary? I knew Sona wanted to have all the facts before arriving at her conclusion, but this was excessive, even by my standards.

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"Lily is in possession of the Sacred Gear known as Oracle," Sona said, pointing to the small list of Sacred Gears on a scroll. I mean, I assumed that was Sona was pointing at. I didn't comprehend whatever it was. Looking over to Lily didn't give me any clarity into if she understood it either.

"This Sacred Gear is known for its strong sense of foresight and prescience, often taking the form of prophecy. As prophecies can be interpreted in a range of different methods, the exact accuracy of Oracle has been up for debate between many factions but is agreed upon as among the most accurate. Seeing as Oracle is suspected to be forged from the soul of the first Oracle of Delphi," Sona paused for breath, letting everything sink in properly.

"Wasn't the first Oracle of Delphi originally a serpent?" I asked from the back, raising my hand slightly. Like all myths that survived to the modern-day, there were multiple versions of the same story, which one could use to gradually paint a picture of what truly happened. If true, it would go far to explain the snake eyes thing.

"That is correct, James. Apollo turned the mate of a monstrous serpent into a human, who he granted the power of foresight to serve as the Oracle," Sona nodded. "You two being related is actually why I thought to check Oracle first." Albion let out a mental scoff at being compared to a simple reptile, and I had to stop myself from chuckling.

'It's ok Albion. Dinosaurs are also likely reptiles,' I grinned lightly.

'Dinosaurs were punks,' Albion shot back, as my lips twitched, resisting the urge to break out into a grin.

"That, a few other," Sona suddenly paused, as if thinking of something at the last minute. "I'm veering off-topic." I blinked, as did a few of the others. That was strange. I wonder what Sona was about to say.

"As we presently all know, Kokibiel intends to reignite the three faction war. An event that cannot be allowed to pass," Rias spoke next. "We can't retreat, as Kokibiel would likely murder everyone in town. Staying means he will be gunning for us directly."

"My brother has brought our army up to high alert, but it would take an hour for them to arrive here to the mortal world to help us. With two Longinus, we might stand a chance of beating Kokabiel. However, our primary goals should be to stall for time, and contain whatever damage Kokabiel might unleash upon the city," Rias spoke up, voice rising above the din.

"As such, fortifying the school is our best option at this point. While James has discovered what is likely Kokabiel's layer in the city, it would be impossible to assault without risking the lives of hundreds of people, and Kokabiel would have moved the Holy Swords to another location if he suspected them being comprised," Sona followed. "The convergence of ley lines at Kouh will go a considerable way of evening the field between us and Kokabeil further."

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Still a fifty percent chance of success. Kokabiel scowled, running the numbers once again. No, this couldn't be right. Even if things hadn't gone according to plan, with both Dragon Emperor's remaining in play, even with his unwitting minions failing to steal the Holy Maiden's Sacred Gear, the odds of success shouldn't have been a coin flip. He would win the fight against them, of course. That wasn't in doubt. But his overall plan succeeding? The difference was simply far too great.

But he had gone over every variable. There was no reason for their odds of success to be this high. Still, he had done too much for him to back down from his plans now. Azazel wasn't an idiot, no matter how much he could act the part. The head of the Gigroi knew he was planning something.

This was the best chance. Eventually, the Church would ask for permission to enter the territory, and odds were, Devil's would be willing to grant it. He could easily stop the humans that were part of the Church, but if the likes of Micheal came to aid his human allies? Or worse, a coalition? He would fail, and his planning would be for nothing.

It would have to be now. And before the Devil's set up too many defenses. He had just the thing to lure them off their position.

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Rias continued to talk about potential battle plans and strategies that we could deploy, both against a force of Fallen Angels or against Kokabiel himself. It was best to be prepared for anything, lest we are taken off guard.

However, we both noticed it at the same time. Lily suddenly clutched her head as if it was about to burst, slowly beginning to slump over, teeth clenched in pain. Asia rushed over at once, light from Twilight Healing already beginning to glow in her hand.

"What's wrong?" I asked, panicked, as everyone began to notice what was going on.

"Head. Hurts. Kokabiel. He's, laughing. Exorcist. Mimic. Has been claimed," she ground out seeming to keep herself from screaming in agony. "Forest, familiar. He's close." Issei's face had taken on an expression of absolute rage, and I likely wasn't much better. He was using Lily's Sacred Gear as a way to hurt her.

And I didn't need to connect the dots to figure out what Lily was saying either. Kokabiel had captured Irina and taken Excalibur Mimic, was likely torturing her for information, and he was close by. He was taunting us with that knowledge, too.

"Trap?" I asked, looking up at the stony faces of Rias and Sona. As much as it pissed me off, this was blatantly a trap. But what did we do from here? Leaving Irina would leave a sour taste in my mouth. Lily's head moved to my right, but I couldn't tell if she was answering my question, or whether the movement was a coincidence.

"Undoubtedly," Sona scowled, arriving at the same conclusion I had. Issei's fists clenched tightly, her nail's threatening to break through the skin.

"What of Kiba or the other Exorcists?" Rias frowned, asking the question that was on the back of my mind. Kiba had followed the two exorcists. If one was captured, what did that imply about Kiba's fate?

"They got away, managed to escape and flee," Lily's voice sounded a lot less painful than it had. "I don't think he wants to fight, not there." Rias and Sona both shared a frown. I could sympathies. There were moments were future sight stopped being manageable, and started becoming an absolute nightmare. This was presently was one of those times.

String the trap. Don't spring the trap. Take the bait, don't take the bait.

"He's exposed right now. And we know where he is. He's expecting us, but we could still ambush him," Rias mothballed, trying to figure out a strategy. "Maybe hurt him enough to delay his plans."

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Stealth was never a strong suit of mine. Or I don't think it was a strength for any of us. We had split into four separate groups. Rias and Sona would be the front, the counter bait, appearing without all of their peerages. Give the illusion of failing the rule of "don't split the party". Saji and Issei were put on the same team, directly on the left flank of the engagement. Akeno would be giving them cover. I was holding the right flank, alongside Lily.

I protested her participation heavily, much to her dismay. Sure, I wasn't the most experienced in combat, but Lily was completely green. She'd simply had less power, and less practice to back herself up. But I ultimately conceded Sona's point. Splitting ourselves up would be far too risky, leaving Lily exposed would be more dangerous than bringing her with us.

That still didn't change this was not what I wanted for her in the slightest. My life getting wrapped up in the supernatural business? I could deal with it. I was adapting to it. But Lily? My little sister? Thrown into a world of monsters and gods? Over my cold, decaying corpse.

But there wasn't going to be much time for my thoughts, as we approached our position. Kokabiel hovered in the clearing, hanging as if suspended by ropes. All twelve wings sprouting from his spine were still, feather's not even binding in the wind. Something felt off. Eirie.

The Fallen Angel was too still. Too much like a statue than any living being should be. Maybe this was an illusion?

"So, you finally came," the Fallen Angel let out a chuckle, mouth moving at last. "Fewer than I expected you to arrive with."

"Hand her over, Kokabiel. We know you have her," Rias demanded, as the Fallen Angel began to laugh.

"If you want her so badly, you can have her," Kokabiel snapped his fingers, Irana appearing in his grip. "Her part in my plans is over." He tossed the battered exorcist aside like a child would throw away a toy they'd become bored with.

"However, seeing as you're present without your all your peerages, I think I'll take advantage of the situation, and just kill the two of you right now," Kokabiel raised his hand, a spear of light beginning to take shape.

A spear of my own began to form, encircled by one of my greater runes. Across the clearing, I could feel Issei building up power, as Lily formed a spell of her own. She notched the lightning arrow into the bow, sparks flowing freely, aiming at Kokabiel's head. Then her body froze up as if something grabbed ahold of her.

"He can see the future," she muttered, so faint I could barely understand her words. My eye's hardly had time to widen in surprise as Kokabiel's hand suddenly whipped towards me, throwing the spear towards our hiding place. I panicked, releasing the lightning spear in my hand, the empowered spell connecting with Kokabiel's own.

It brought me a precious scant seconds to tackle Lily out of the way, her body still frozen in shock. The line of bush's we were hiding behind exploded, the force knocking us towards Rias and Sona. Lily let out a yelp of pain, as I hissed and skidded, doing my best to reorient myself.

"Dragon shot!" Issei shouted, erupting from his hiding place released the sphere of energy toward the Fallen Angel. Kokabiel did not attempt to dodge the attack, rather batting the attack away with his wings, almost like he was swatting away a fly. Absorption Line snaked out from the bush's, wrapping its way around Kokabiel's wrist.

He spared it a glance, before yanking on it, as if to test something. The next thing I knew, Saji slammed into a tree, Kokabiel using Absorption Line against the young Devil to throw him around.

Akeno and Tsubaki finally made their appearance behind Kokabiel, spell's at the ready, Akeno releasing powerful blasts of pure lightning. Sona and Rias soon joined the fray, Rias's power of destruction and Sona's water magic surging forth to meet Kokabiel.

Both strikes he blocked with just a single hand, holding back the torrent of power arrayed against him. As if this fight was somehow childs play. I began to cast, applying maximized to two lightning bolt spells, while he remained distracted. Even if he was blocking two attacks when each hand, couldn't raise defenses anymore.

Twin bolts screamed from my hands, emitting a blinding flash, as thunder rattled its way through my bones. I blinked the spots out of my eyes, having not anticipated the response of the spell.

"Not bad. I felt that" Kokabiel's voice had a hint of amusement to it, as his wings unfolded, revealing that my strike hadn't even connected. Furthermore, two orbs of raw magical energy had now formed in his hands. But they didn't seem like they were his power.

"But you children would need to do much better to best me," Kokabiel slammed the two orbs in his hands together, before throwing the unstable energy into the ground, tearing up dirt and stone asunder, creating a screen of dust. "I'll be waiting at Kouh. Please don't try to disappoint."

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Finals made this take a bit longer than I originally expected. Sorry about that. But now that Finals are complete, I can focus a bit more on my writing until school starts back up again. I hope everyone enjoyed, and thank you for reading.


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